Students protest DU decision:Daily Star

Over a hundred examinees, who took the Dhaka University admission test this year staged demonstration on the campus yesterday protesting the authorities' decision to discontinue the opportunity to sit twice for admission tests. In one and a half hour demonstration, the protesters urged the authorities not to implement the decision form next year, calling it a "deprivation" as students from previou
s admission session took half of the seats this year. "We were not informed of the decision before taking the admission test. While we got less time for preparation, the previous year students got one year to compete with us," a protester said. Responding to a post on the social media Facebook, the protesters gathered at the base of Raju Memorial Sculpture under the banner of "general students" in the morning. Later, police obstructed protesters when they tried to bring out a procession towards Shahbagh. Earlier, the DU authorities on Tuesday decided to allow only freshly passed HSC students to appear at its admission tests for a single year from the 2015-16 academic session, aiming to create an equal opportunity for all the aspirants. The decision was made to eliminate unequal competition between regular and irregular students, and discourage tutoring at coaching centres, said DU Vice Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, who chaired the meeting. Advertisement Data show that almost half of those who enrol in the DU in an academic year are students of the previous academic session. This year, a total of 45,053 applicants passed the admission test in four units. Of them, 21,493 passed the HSC exams last year. In 2013-14, as many as 3,683 out of 6,896 admitted students were from second year while the number was 3,283 among 6,617 students in 2012-13. Terming the trend a "deprivation" for the fresh admission seekers, Prof Arefin said, "We do no want any such inequality in the test". Moreover, around 400 seats fall vacant every year in different departments, as many students switch to other departments by taking admission test for a second time. These seats remain vacant for the remaining three years of the graduation course. Taking advantage of the opportunity of appearing at the test for a second time, many fresh students, who get enrolled in DU, stop attending classes and take preparations for the admission test again. When they fail to succeed in their attempt, they go for readmission to their previous department causing serious academic indiscipline for us, the VC said. "Discontinuation of the opportunity will stop this bad practice." "Some applicants resort to cheating with the help of coaching centres when they take test for the second time," he added. This year, 30 applicants were caught with answers in their cell phones during DU admission test at different exam centres outside the university. Most of them took the test for the second time. University Grants Commission sources said every year around 4,000 seats in country's different public universities remain vacant as the enrolled students switch to other subjects.