The University Grants Commission (UGC) has finalized the draft of the “Central Admission Examination Authority Ordinance-2023” to enroll students in public universities.
The draft was unanimously finalized in a meeting of the committee formed by the UGC to organize the integrated admission test in all the public universities of the country from the next academic year 2023-24.
The proposed ordinance will be sent to the Ministry of Education soon, UGC secretary Prof Dr Ferdous Zaman told Dhaka Tribune on Thursday after the meeting.
However, until the formation of a separate authority named National Testing Authority (NTA) to organize the entrance examination centrally, the examination will be conducted according to this ordinance.
This ordinance will prevail notwithstanding anything contained in the University Act regarding the admission test, according to the UGC.
Earlier on October 10, the UGC in a meeting of the committee recommended issuing an ordinance quickly to take the admission test effectively as per the intention of the president and the chancellor of the universities.
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The draft of the Ordinance recommended introducing integrated central admission examination with the reform of the ongoing admission procedures.
It also said to avoid complications, procrastination, insecurity and suffering of students and parents, extra financial burden and time wastage in the admission process of the universities.
Mentioning the university admission process, the draft ordinance said a student will be only eligible to participate in the admission test under new procedures. Universities’ existing regulations for admission will not be eligible during the periods.
The draft ordinance further states that after publishing the result, the university will be able to enroll based on the result as well as they can follow their terms and conditions.
It also recommended that a university may conduct the standard aptitude test for admission to music, fine arts, dance, drama, architecture or such highly specialized subjects only on a limited basis.
The authorities will have to formulate policies or guidelines, which will be strictly binding to make the admission process student-friendly and expeditious, reads the draft ordinance.
UGC Chairman (additional charge) Prof Muhammad Alamgir said that there is no scope to hold separate tests avoiding uniform admission test after releasing ordinance.
He expected that the proposed ordinance will be promulgated soon and initiatives will be taken to conduct the admission test from the academic year 2023-2024.
However, after implementing the uniform entry test from next year, the university apex body also has a plan to enroll new students in both public and private universities under the National Testing Authority (NTA).
UGC secretary Prof Dr Ferdous Zaman told this reporter that after publishing a gazette of the ordinance, another committee of 13 members on the uniform admission test will be formed led by the UGC chairman and two members from the commissions.
Other members are vice chancellors of Dhaka University (DU), Rajshahi UNiversity(RU), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), Jahangirnagar University (JU), Chittagong University(CU) and Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU).
The remaining members will be selected by the UGC chairman.
The committee will fix the method of uniform university entry test after meeting with stakeholders and university authority , said UGC secretary.
