The University Grants Commission on Tuesday decided not to hold online-based admission tests for the public universities in the upcoming academic session due to the unavailability of suitable software for holding such large-scale exams.
After a meeting with a seven-member expert committee, UGC chairman Kazi Shahidullah said that the commission backtracked on its plan to hold online-based university admission tests.
The expert committee opined that the software developed by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Digital University was not appropriate for holding such large-scale admission tests.
The expert committee said that the software could be used for holding internal exams of the public universities, he said.
We have therefore decided to hold combined admission tests across the country in clusters.
Bangabandhu Digital University vice-chancellor Munaj Ahmed Nur gave a presentation of their software named Proctored Remote Examination System for the expert committee members in presence of the UGC officials.
The UGC arranged the presentation as the Association of Universities of Bangladesh last month requested it to test the efficacy of the software before applying it for holding combined admission tests, said association president Mohammad Rafiqul Alam, also the vice-chancellor of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology.
UGC member Muhammed Alamgir disclosed that the students would have to appear at their admission tests at the centres to be designated across the country.
He said that three groups of universities — seven agricultural universities, three engineering universities and newly formed 24 universities — would hold their admission tests in three respective clusters.
‘We have proposed to Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology to join the group of the engineering universities and requested the vice-chancellors of the four universities, run under the 1973 act, to form a separate cluster,’ Alamgir said.
Four medical universities would follow the health ministry instructions for their admission tests, he said, adding that Bangladesh University of Professionals, National University, Open University and Islamic Arabic University would remain outside the clusters.
Alamgir noted that education minister Dipu Moni on November 1 held a separate meeting with the vice-chancellors of BUET, Dhaka University and Rajshahi University to review their decisions to hold separate admission tests.
‘The minister has requested them to consider the public health issue amid the COVID-19 prevalence,’ he mentioned.
DU VC M Aktaruzzaman did not make any direct comment on their latest position. ‘We are monitoring the developments and will take decisions accordingly. We have a long tradition of holding admission tests and we are confident about in this regard,’ he said.
BUET VC Satya Prasad Majumder and Rajshahi University VC M Abdus Sobhan could not be contacted for comments.
But BUET faculty of engineering dean Md Rafique Ullah and RU pro vice-chancellor Ananda Kumar Saha said that the universities would take their decisions at their academic council meetings.
Chittagong University’s acting VC Shireen Akhter said that they would follow the DU decision regarding their admission test.
