The government on Wednesday has sought some more time to the public universities to take a final decision on continuing or scrapping the cluster-based admission test system.
The system鈥檚 feasibility has been questioned again recently after three universities decided to leave the system citing different problems including not getting meritorious students and session congestion.
The three universities are Jagannath University, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh and Khulna University of Engineering and Technology.
Against this backdrop, the education ministry鈥檚 special assistant professor M Aminul Islam on Wednesday held a meeting with the vice-chancellors of the public universities combined under the system.
Bangladesh Agricultural University vice-chancellor professor AK Fazlul Haque Bhuiyan told 抖阴精品 that, at the meeting, decision was made that the government would review the cluster-based admission system before taking a final decision on it.
Seven agricultural universities held admission tests under the cluster system for the first time in the 2019鈥�20 academic year with an aim to reduce the sufferings of the admission seekers.
In the 2020-21 and 2021-22 sessions, the universities in three clusters 鈥� general and, science and technology universities, agricultural universities, and engineering universities held admission tests under the cluster system.
Since the introduction, some public universities did not want to work under this system citing difficulties in admission procedure.
Five major public universities 鈥� Dhaka University, Chittagong University, Rajshahi University, Jahangirnagar University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology 鈥� decided not to join the system.
Most recently, the authorities of Jagannath University issued an advertisement to take separate admission test for this year.
Professor Md Rezaul Karim, vice-chancellor of the university, said that the decision of leaving the cluster-based system was taken at an academic council meeting.
Bangladesh Agricultural University vice chancellor professor AK Fazlul Haque Bhuiyan also said that the decision of leaving the system was taken at the university鈥檚 academic council.
鈥榃e do not want to be in the system as we are facing many challenges,鈥� he said.
He said that due to the system they could not select the meritorious students as per their requirement which was hampering the university鈥檚 reputation.
Professor Fazlul Haque said that most of the vice-chancellors also said the same.
In the meeting, professor Aminul Islam sought seven to 10 days to the vice-chancellors to review the cluster-based system and get a final decision from higher level of the government, he added.聽
According to the University Grants Commission, 24 general and science and technology universities, eight agricultural universities, and three engineering universities are scheduled to conduct admission tests this year.
In the country currently there are 55 public universities.
Earlier on February 27, 2023 at an education ministry meeting, decision was reached to administer unified admission tests for all public universities in 2023鈥�24 academic session, while it was also decided that the proposed National Testing Authority will prepare a national score.
Neither the unified admission test was held nor has the NTA been formed yet.
