Bangladesh
Cluster System President instructs universities to stay in cluster system
Dhaka, April 16: Jagannath, Comilla and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman University of Science and Technology announced to withdraw from the cluster system within 2 years of the introduction of the this system. Amidst such uncertainty, President Md. Abdul Hamid has ordered the universities to complete the admission test programme in cluster system for the academic year 2022-23.
This order was given in a notification signed by Md. Mahmudul Alam, Joint Secretary of Secondary and Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education on the instructions of the President on Saturday.
According to the order, according to the intention of His Excellency the President and the Chancellor of the Universities, Bangladesh University Grants Commission (UGC) has been given the responsibility to complete the admission test programme in the cluster system in the academic year 2022-23 with the participation of all the public universities that were involved in the cluster admission test in the past. At the same time, the UGC has been tasked to take necessary initiatives to bring all public universities under the single admission test from the academic year 2023-24.
Meanwhile, three universities announced their withdrawal from the cluster system out of 22 universities before such directive from the President regarding the cluster system for the academic year 2022-23. In this, the Islamic University has also published a notification to take admission in its own system. And Jagannath University and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman University of Science and Technology have announced to leave the cluster.
However, the source of the Ministry of Education says that those who were in the cluster last year will have to remain in the cluster admission process this year as well. That is why the cooperation of the President has been sought. A summary is sent to the Prime Minister's Office to group all the universities. After that, the new instructions were announced by the President.
According to law, universities are bound to obey the President's order. So it is said that the admission test will be held in the current academic year like last year. However, there was no immediate response from those who expressed interest in exiting the group.
The Vice-Chancellors of some of the clustered universities said that the admission test notification for the 2022-23 academic year of the clustered universities may be published tomorrow, Monday (April 17). There may be several changes in this year's admission test.
