While they cannot be on the ground back home, they were showing their solidarity at a protest at the University of Otago yesterday.
Protest organiser Rakibul Khan said the situation back home was hard to gauge due to the lack of communication coming from his country.
"People have died, and we don’t know the death toll because internet and network services have been blocked by the government — we fear what the number is and we fear it could increase.
"There is no sign of the situation calming down."
Since the start of the protests, it was reported 17 people had died after riot police were deployed.
Since July 1, university students have been protesting against a Bangladesh high court decision to reinstate a rule that reserves one-third of governmental posts for the descendants of those who participated in the country’s 1971 liberation movement.
This combined with other government rules meant only 44% of governmental jobs were given to people "based on merit", he said.
University of Otago student Moudad Islam said governmental jobs provided security not many other roles could.
"We just ask that our government stop this. We don’t want the deaths of our next generation," Mr Islam said.
