30th December, 2020 09:49:08
Most of the country’s universities are running without focusing on research, a key benchmark for measuring the standard of tertiary education.
The majority of private universities are conducting research in name only while public universities also fail to reach the desired level of research, creating barriers for higher education to reach the expected level.
Such a scenario of research at the public and private universities came up at the latest annual report of the University Grants Commission (UGC). The 46th Annual Report of the UGC was submitted to President Abdul Hamid, also the chancellor of all public and private universities, on Sunday.
The much-awaited uniform admission test or Central Admission Test (CAT) is going to be introduced for enrolling students at the public universities in the country.
The universities are all set to introduce the uniform admission test from this academic year to reduce hassles of admission seekers and their guardians during entry test in the higher education institutions.
Thirty-three public universities out of 39 have agreed to hold the uniform admission test under several clusters to enrol the students.
However, six other universities Dhaka University, Rajshahi University, Jahangirnagar University, Chittagong University, Bangladesh University of Professionals and Dhaka University of Engineering & Technology opted out of the system.
The universities agreed earlier this month to hold the test titled Central Admission Test to reduce the hassles faced by admission seekers.
Vice chancellors of the 19 universities at a meeting yesterday decided that there will be three exams in the test one each for science, humanities and business studies students based on Higher Secondary Certificate exams syllabus.
The test will be held at all the 19 universities and students who passed HSC-level exams this year and 2019 with a certain GPA will be eligible to participate in the test.
The new method of admission has been in discussion since 2010. It was aimed at relieving the admission seekers from having to travel to different universities in different parts of the country every admission season just to be able to sit for the tests.
19 public universities set minimum qualification for admission test
Arts students will need GPA 6, commerce students 6.5 and science students GPA 7 in combined SSC and HSC results
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Nineteen science and technology, and general public universities set to hold centralised admission tests for the next academic session today fixed the minimum GPA requirement for applying.
Vice-chancellors of these universities at a meeting also decided that there will be three exams one each for science, humanities and commerce students based on the HSC syllabus.
All 19 universities will be used as venues for the exams.
Dr Zaid Bakht: An economist with a mission
Staff Correspondent
Economist Dr Zaid Bakht
Eminent economist Dr Zaid Bakht has made a significant contribution to national-level policy formulation in the field of industry, national income accounting practices, development planning and public expenditure.
The acclaimed and renowned development economist is conducting and guiding research projects in the field of development economics focusing on trade, industry, private sector, SME development, macroeconomic management and physical infrastructures.
He has been leading the transformation of the state-run Agrani Bank as the government recently extended the tenure for the third term.
From the beginning of his role as the chairman of Agrani Bank, the eminent economist has been focusing on the internal audit of Agrani Bank to ensure financial transparency.