Admission test: RU under fire as students from one district assigned seats at centres in another district

To ease the difficulties faced by admission test candidates, Rajshahi University (RU) has decided to hold its 2024-25 academic year undergraduate entry tests in five divisional cities – Dhaka, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna, and Chattogram.

However, the recently published seating arrangement for the exams has sparked controversy and anger among the students, with many being assigned to test centres far from their locations.

For example, many candidates from the Rangpur region have been assigned seats at Chittagong University to sit for the exam. Similarly, many candidates from the Chittagong region have been assigned seats at various universities in Dhaka.

Even students from Rajshahi have been reportedly assigned seats at exam centres in Khulna. It has also been reported that instead of their preferred location, students have been assigned seats in exam centres in different districts for exams of different units.

The confusing seating arrangement has led to widespread outrage among the aspirants. Many have argued that despite prioritising certain centres, they have been assigned to distant locations, further increasing their travel burden instead of easing it.

The admission subcommittee is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting today to review the issue, the RU authorities said in a statement last night (5 March).

RU's admission tests are set to take place on 12, 19, and 26 April.

Candidates are demanding the cancellation of this seating plan and the issuance of a revised version as soon as possible.

RU sources say candidates were able to download their admit cards starting at 4pm on Tuesday (4 March), and once the seating arrangements were revealed, the criticism began flooding in.

Confusion and anger

In the Facebook group "Rajshahi University Admission Test Centre," candidates expressed their frustrations, with many calling for the cancellation of the current plan and requesting that exam seats be assigned based on students' convenience.

Zikra Niha, a candidate from Jhenaidah, wrote in the group, "As a female student, it is impossible for me to travel all the way to Chattogram for the exam. After spending so much money on the application, I cannot afford the expensive journey…This is outright harassment. The authorities should allocate seats based on students' preferences."

Rawnak Jahan Rozy, another candidate, said, "Even though I'm from Bogura, my test centre is Dhaka University. It takes only three hours to reach Rajshahi, but Dhaka is much farther. I am also worried about accommodation. The authorities should have arranged seats based on regions. A new seating plan must be issued in the students' interest."

Candidate Shimul Islam added, "Rajshahi University aimed to reduce students' suffering by holding admission tests in divisional cities, but they ended up increasing it instead. This is the reality."

In the Facebook group "Rajshahi University Sangsad," Kawsar Ahmed questioned, "Why are Rajshahi-based students being sent to Khulna? What kind of reckless decision is this? What was the point of allowing students to choose their test centres? What has the administration gained from this? Do they intend to make students suffer more?"

Criticising the seating arrangement, Salahuddin Ammar, coordinator of Student Against Discrimination (SAD), wrote, "A student who chose Khulna as their preferred centre is assigned to Rajshahi for one unit, Dhaka for another, and Chattogram for yet another! Seriously? What kind of mess has RU's ICT Centre created? This is a new form of suffering."

"The entire purpose of decentralising admission tests was to reduce the difficulties students face. The university must solve this issue in time – there's still enough time before the exams. Otherwise, this will be another injustice towards students," he added.

University responds

In response to the criticism, the Rajshahi University administration issued a statement last night, clarifying its stance.

It said the administration is aware of the concerns raised by the candidates and their guardians regarding the region-based seating arrangements.

To maintain transparency and order in the examination process, the admission committee decided to hold the tests in public universities within the designated divisional cities. Accordingly, eight public universities in Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna, Chattogram, and Dhaka were selected as test centres, it said.

"However, a problem has taken shape, where some institutions have limited seating capacity even though the number of applicants is high, while others have excess seats but fewer applicants.

"As a result, as the seating arrangement was made based on merit, some students' seats have been assigned to test centres in cities different from their initial preferences," the statement added.

"We can confirm that seat allocation was done in accordance with the policies set by the admission committee and its subcommittee. Nevertheless, considering the concerns of some students, the university administration has scheduled an emergency meeting of the admission subcommittee for tomorrow [today] to review the issue," said the statement.