Many who have passed HSC examswill not get admission to their desired institutions
A large number of successful HSC examinees will be denied admission to their desired institutions of higher studies, as the students who have passed vastly outnumber the seats available.
Though the number of GPA-5 scorers dropped this year, landing a seat at a reputable public university remains a big concern.Most of the colleges affiliated with the National University, especially those in the rural areas, do not get enough students because of poor quality education and outdated curriculums.
The education ministry painted a picture of tough competition ahead, noting, however, that admission seekers should not be worried about seats at the institutions.
A uniform admission test at all the public universities under a “cluster system” will not take place this time, as some universities said they were not prepared now.
The government had considered introducing the system this year to ease admission hassles and help students get out of the grip of coaching centres.
Therefore, students will have to sit admission tests held at different public universities around the same time of the year as usual.
Every year, admission seekers face a huge amount of pressure. They travel from one part of the country to another to take admission tests. They have to buy many admission forms and spend a lot on travel and accommodation. But the lion’s share of their money is spent on coaching.
In a survey conducted by the University Grants Commission last year, students mentioned huge overall costs and tests taking a great deal of time and causing hassles as the major drawbacks of the current admission test procedures at public universities.
As many as 7,44,891 students — 3,93,899 males and 3,50,992 females — passed the HSC and equivalent exams this year. Of them, 58,197 got GPA (grade point average)-5 while 2,31,533 scored between GPA 4 and higher.
But the number of seats at the 33 public universities is around 47,000 while the 22 public medical colleges, 53 private medical colleges and nine dental colleges have around 8,500 seats, according to the education ministry and BANBEIS.
This shows that the admission seekers will be battling hard to enrol at the public universities and medical colleges, especially Dhaka University, Buet and Dhaka Medical College.
As for the private universities, they have more than one lakh seats. Many of these universities might raise the number of seats to take in more students.
Besides, there are 500 colleges under the National University, which admitted more than two lakh students last year.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said there would be intense competition for seats at prestigious public universities like previous years. “But there will be no seat crisis.”
Referring to the cluster system, he said the ministry would decide how to make the admission process easier from next academic session.
The vice chancellors of many universities agreed to the cluster system, but said they had already started the admission process in the traditional system. Therefore, introducing the system now would create difficulties, said sources in the ministry.
-With The Daily Star input
