‘Amend University Ordinance of 1973’

BNP lawmaker Harunur Rashid yesterday in parliament demanded that the government amends the University Ordinance 1973 to "force" four leading public universities to follow the uniform admission tests from this year.

Speaking on a point of order, the opposition MP also urged Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, who was presiding over the sitting at that time, to issue a ruling so that the government can introduce the uniform university admission tests from this year removing all barriers.

"Vice chancellors of 28 universities sat in a meeting on Tuesday. It's a matter of concern that some VCs of major universities, including Dhaka University and Buet, are talking about the 1973 ordinance and showing their unwillingness to accept the uniform admission test," he said, referring to media reports.

As per the ordinance, authorities of universities can make decision about their academic activities on their own.

According to media reports, Dhaka University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), Jahangirnagar University and Chittagong are unwilling to adopting the uniform admission system.

MP Harun said the public universities are not being run fully following the 1973 ordinance, while most universities have no student union.

"But the university authorities talk about the ordinance when it comes to student admission and teachers' appointment. That's why I think this ordinance should be amended to make it time-befitting," he said.

Harun said the lakhs of students and their guardians have to go through serious sufferings during admission tests at different universities. "So, uniform admission test must be introduced from this year."

Earlier on January 23, the UGC announced that it would go for uniform admission test for the 2020-2021 academic year.

Bangladesh Bishwabidyalaya Parishad, an association of vice chancellors of public universities, decided at a meeting on Tuesday that all public universities would have a uniform admission test this year. However, VCs of DU, Buet, and JU did not attend the meeting.

For higher education, public universities remain students' top choice. But the number of seats is much smaller than the number of students seeking admission.

There are 39 public universities, which enroll some 65,000 students every year through separate admission tests. Last year, some 9.88 lakh students passed the HSC and its equivalent examinations under the 10 education boards.