Students will not get the opportunity to appear twice for the intake examinations of Dhaka University from the 2015-16 academic session.
The authority of Dhaka University has taken decision at a meeting of its Central Admission Committee on Tuesday with Vice-Chancellor (VC) Professor Dr Arefin Siddique in the chair.
Dhaka University Registrar Syed Rezaur Rahman confirmed the Dhaka Tribune about the decision.
The decision came in a time when the university saw a mass failure of students in this year's admission tests.
DU Registrar Syed Rezaur Rahman said: “The committee decided that those who have already taken part in this year's admission test, will not be eligible to sit for the second admission test in 2015. The authority have made the decisions considering some reasons.”
He said the university authority also relaxed the condition for eligibility of enrollment into the English department.
"According to the new rule, students have to get minimum 8 marks in Elective English which was 15 previously; and 18 in General English in stead of 20," he added.
The DU registrar said: “Almost half of the students, who get admitted to Dhaka University every year, are the ones who take the admission test twice to pass, which denies the recently HSC-passed students their chances to get a spot at what is considered the most prestigious public university in the country.”
He further said: “These second-time candidates are either students who failed at their first attempt at getting into the university, or those who – after their successful first attempt – got admitted to a department that they did not prefer.
Because of the practice of switching departments, around 400 seats are left vacant every session at the university.”
Besides, many fresh admission seekers claimed that the second-time candidates managed to get better scores in the test as they got more time to prepare, he added.
In a bid to stop such practice among students, the DU authority decided to stop offering applicants the chance to sit twice for admission from the 2015-16 academic session, the DU registrar said.
According to the Dhaka University central admission office, in the admission test for the 2013-14 session, 89,800 of the total 192,221 candidates were second-time applicants. In 2012-13 session the number of second-time applicants was 96,756 among a total 235,703 candidates; and in 2011-12 session it was 82,289 among a total 199,046 students.
On the other hand, among the 6,896 students who got admitted for the 2013-14 session, 3,683 had appeared in the admission test for their second attempt. In 2012-13 session, the number was 3,283 among 6,617 students; and in 2011-12 session, it was 3,338 among 6,663 total admitted students.
During the 2013-14 academic session, 421 seats were left vacant by students who changed departments after sitting in their second admission test. For 2012-13 session, the number was 416; and for 2011-12 session, it was 429 seats.