Buet, Medical Colleges
Admission seekers left in uncertainty
Although the admission process for honours courses in all the major public universities is already underway, uncertainty plagues thousands of students willing to enrol for Buet and medical colleges.
Over the years public medical colleges and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) remained the most sought-after institutions by the students. Admission to these institutions has been stalled recently, pending decisions from the High Court.
Teachers feared this delay in admission could have long-term adverse effect on the academic calendar of the institutions.
“Any delay in admission will automatically lead to session jam in the particular courses,” said Prof Ashraful Islam, general secretary of Buet Teachers’ Association.
The admission-seekers, however, said they will be in deep trouble if the admission tests in Buet, medical colleges and other public universities are held in quick succession.
Suspending the academic activities on July 7, teachers led by Buet Teachers’ Association staged demonstrations on the campus demanding removal of its Vice-chancellor (VC) Prof SM Nazrul Islam and Pro VC Prof M Habibur Rahman over 16 allegations against them.
The country’s premier engineering university plunged into crisis when its authorities on July 11 shut the institution for 44 days, virtually to ward off the protest.
After hearing a petition filed by a lawyer, the High Court (HC) on Tuesday directed the Buet authorities to immediately start its admission process for the 2012-13 sessions.
Contacted, Buet VC Prof Nazrul said, “We will try to start the admission process in October. If it is not possible, we will do it in November.”
Admission to medical and dental colleges suffered a setback after the government recently announced that there will be no admission tests from this year. It said the students will be picked based on the overall GPA achieved by them in the SSC and HSC examinations.
The decision sparked protests by a section of the admission-seekers. They staged demonstrations last week and declared a protest programme for August 27 if the previous admission system is not restored.
The issue was taken to the HC, which on Tuesday questioned the legality of the government’s decision to enrol students without holding any admission tests.
The court also asked the government to explain within four weeks why its decision should not be declared illegal.
Following the court ruling, the government said it will enrol the students in the medical and dental colleges in line with the court’s decision.
Twenty-two government medical colleges can admit around 2,811 students while 53 private medical colleges have 4,245 seats.
Last year, around 40,000 students applied for admission in medical colleges, while around 8,000 students took the entrance exams in Buet against around 900 seats.
The authorities of Dhaka, Jahangirnagar, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, and Jagannath universities have already announced the dates for distribution of forms and holding admission tests.
More than 7.21 lakh students passed this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams, with 61,162 obtaining GPA-5.
The admission-seekers will face tough competition from many candidates to get admitted to their desired institutions as the seats in the public universities are limited.
-With The Daily Star input
