Shahin Akhter
Around 63 per cent of examinees securing a Grade Point Average of 5 in this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent examinations will not be able to get admitted to the public universities across the country due to lack of seats.
Though the private universities in the country have sufficient seats to accommodate all the GPA 5 holders, many cannot afford the high cost of education in these universities.
Expect for some colleges, the quality of education in the educational institutions under the National University is very poor. That is why, many do not prefer NU as their first choice for graduation.
‘The biggest problem is that we cannot maintain the acceptable standard in higher education in Bangladesh,’ said Brac University professor emeritus Manzoor Ahmed.
He pointed out that many colleges under the National University and many private universities failed to provide quality education.
‘Many get admitted to the public universities for the low cost of education,’ said the professor and added that most of the students could not afford the costly education in private universities.
The concern for the availability of seats in the best institutions for fresh aspiring graduates rises as the results of the HSC and equivalent examinations were published on Tuesday.
This year, the combined pass rate in the HSC and equivalent examinations has stood at 77.78 per cent. A total of 10,35,309 candidates passed the examinations.
A total of 1,45,911 of the passed students obtained GPA 5 this year.
On the contrary, according to the latest 49th annual report of the University Grants Commission in 2022, the number of available seats in first-year honours level in 50 public universities was 54,515.
Against these seats, 56,300 students got admitted (or 1,785 more students were admitted) to the universities.
Compared to the number of this year’s GPA 5 holders and the available seats in public universities, these universities can only accommodate 37.36 per cent of the students and 62.63 per cent will be out of this coverage.
Many students with lower GPAs, however, got admitted to these universities after competing in the admission tests.
The UGC report, released in October 2023, also showed that, in 2022, the number of seats under 106 private universities was 1,60,080 at honours level. A total of 1,23,038 students got admitted to the private universities in the year.
In 2022, the report said, the National University had a total of 9,01,545 seats at honours level in different colleges and other educational institutions under it. Against these seats, a total of 7,04,196 students got admitted to the institutions under the NU.
Professor emeritus Manzoor Ahmed also said that the government should first ensure acceptable standard in higher education in all the institutions.
‘The curriculum for the educational institutions under National University needs to be relevant with the employment market,’ he said and added that the number of public universities should be increased.
University Grants Commission member Professor Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan told New Age that the individual’s preparation for admission tests was important for getting admitted to the universities rather than their results.
He acknowledged that seats in some tertiary-level educational institutions remained vacant due to the poor quality of education there.
He said that they would try to improve the quality of education gradually.
The country’s public and private medical and dental colleges had a total of 13,072 seats in 2022.
Many students in these fields prefer to study in other Asian countries as the quality of education in private medical colleges is not satisfactory. Private medical colleges also provide few facilities though the cost of education there is very high.
According to a survey, Tracer Study on Graduates of Tertiary-Level Colleges, released in September 2021 by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, showed that 66 per cent of National University graduates remained unemployed as their subjects and skills did not often match the criteria set by private sector employers.
The survey also found that most of the NU graduates remained unemployed as the subjects they studied were not relevant to job market requirements, and they lacked the necessary skills in information and communications technology too.
In 2023, in the Follow-Up Tracer Study on Graduates of Tertiary-Level Colleges, the percentage of unemployed NU graduates, however, came down to 28 per cent.
