The University Grants Commission (UGC) has urged universities that have already announced their admission test dates to reconsider their schedules in the national interest and for the convenience of students.
However, the University of Dhaka has decided not to heed the UGC’s call and will proceed with its admission process as scheduled.
As a result, students, who will pass this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) supplementary examinations, will not be eligible to sit for the Dhaka University admission tests.
This is because the application process for admission to the university will close at the end of November, while the supplementary examinations are scheduled to begin on 1 December.
The education authorities have decided to hold supplementary examinations within a month for candidates who failed in a maximum of two subjects in this year’s HSC and equivalent examinations.
The initiative aims to ensure that students who pass these examinations get an opportunity to seek admission to higher education institutions in the next academic year.
The results of the HSC and equivalent examinations were published on 31 October. Of the 12,40,798 candidates who appeared under 11 education boards, 646,685 passed. A total of 422,905 candidates failed in one or two subjects. Of them, 298,040 failed in one subject and 124,865 in two subjects.
Dhaka University Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Mohammad Almujaddade Alfasane told Prothom Alo that the university had fallen behind schedule due to the prolonged disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Delaying the admission process by another two to three months could create another session jam.
For this reason, an emergency meeting of the university’s general admission committee was convened on Monday. The meeting unanimously decided to retain the previous schedule, with 25 November as the application deadline and admission tests beginning on 5 December, as previously announced.
However, students whose results change following re-scrutiny and re-evaluation of their examination papers, with revised results due to be published on 23 November, will be allowed to apply, he said.
It may be noted that examination results are routinely subject to re-scrutiny, but supplementary examinations are being introduced for the first time this year.
However, questions have arisen over the effectiveness of this initiative. Applications for first-year undergraduate admission for the 2026–27 academic session at Dhaka University and Rajshahi University will close this November.
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and Jagannath University will also begin accepting applications this month. The MBBS and BDS admission tests for medical colleges are scheduled for 18 December. Other universities are also beginning their admission processes.
Against this backdrop, the UGC held an exchange of views with vice-chancellors or their representatives on Monday. The meeting decided that public universities would begin accepting applications for first-year honours admission tests from January next year, with the tests planned to be held from February. However, no representative from Dhaka University attended the meeting.
At a press briefing after the meeting, UGC Chairman Professor Mamun Ahmed said vice-chancellors had been requested to take the holy month of Ramadan into consideration when setting admission test schedules.
Universities that have already announced their admission test dates were also urged to reconsider their schedules in the national interest and for the convenience of students.
However, Dhaka University authorities held a meeting on Monday and decided to conduct their admission tests according to the previously announced schedule.