Uniform admission test: More hassle, less relief

Highlights 

• Admission seekers still have to pay admission form fee to universities
• Many say they have to travel from one university to another to give documents
• Admission form fees can be between Tk550-2,600 per university
• Universities yet to decide on admission fees, despite no tests being held

Public universities around the country continue to charge admission form fees although they will not hold any admission exams as a uniform admission test system came into play this year.

The much-discussed uniform admission tests for public universities were meant to reduce costs for admission seekers and to relieve them of the burden of having to travel to different parts of the country for admission tests at different universities.

But admission aspirants find themselves still having to travel from university to university for admission, while their costs have only gone up.

Admission seekers said they sat for the uniform tests by paying Tk1,200 each, but now are having to pay application fees to complete the admission process.

Asif Hasan, an admission seeker, told The Business Standard that those seeking admission do not know which university will accept their applications and so they had to apply to several universities.

"It is true that we have got relief from the hassle of travelling, but we have to pay more as admission form fees. Poor students like me are in a severe financial crisis now. It will be tough to get admission after applying to many universities as my father has no job now," he said.

Shamima Chowdhury, another candidate for admission, said, "The universities do not have to take admission tests individually. They will not spend any money on the admission process, so why take extra fees for applications?"

The university authorities are yet to come up with an answer as to why they are still taking admission form fees.

Professor Dr Imdadul Hoque, vice-chancellor of Jagannath University, which takes Tk600 as admission service fee, said the amount was being taken after a decision made by different departments.

He declined to speak further on the matter.

When contacted, Professor Farid Uddin Ahmed, VC of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, said the matter would be discussed at the next committee meeting.

According to the uniform admission test committee, the test "GST" (General, Science and Technology) was taken for 20 public universities. The test for science students was held on 17 October, B unit for humanities students on 24 October and C unit for business on 1 November.

As per the committee's decision, applicants had to pay Tk1,200 to take the tests. Each university could admit students based on merit lists. A total of 3.61 lakh admission-seekers took part in the test across the country.

Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed, who is also the joint convener of the uniform admission test committee, told TBS that the responsibility of the committee is to provide combined scores like GRE. And that is why the committee had published the scores of the students.

"The respective university will issue circulars to enroll the new students following meetings of their academic councils and admission test committees. We were 100% successful as the students and their guardians did not face any hassle during the admission test," he said.

"We have learnt from this admission test. We will do our best at the next admission test. We will consider every recommendation of the students," he added.

Students, meanwhile, are far from free of hassles.

Many said they had to go from one university to another with their required documents for admission.

The uniform admission test committee could follow the medical admission test model and designate students for each university.

An aspirant wishing anonymity told the correspondent that he had applied for Jashore Science and Technology University and paid Tk2,600 for the science group as the university has four faculties for science students.

"An admission seeker needs at least Tk40,000 for his or her admission. It is too much," he said. 

The new uniform admission test method has been in discussion since 2010. The objective of the system was to relieve admission seekers from the trouble of having to travel to different universities from one part of the country to another.

That objective, however, has only been on paper, according to admission-seekers.