Staff Reporter :
The University Grants Commission has introduced a Unique Student Identification Number (USIN) for each student pursuing education in private university to bring transparency and to prevent alleged certificate forgery.
The Commission sources said the authorities of private universities have to send all data of the students to the UGC. This data would help track all students easily.
Even, UGC will be able to know how many students are being admitted against the permissible seats allocated by the Commission.
Besides, this USIN will help the employers of any office assess the certificates of the students before their appointments.
The UGC sources said that they had a fruitful discussion recently with the authorities of the universities and they would implement it by July this year.
Such USIN will act as a deterrent for both the universities and ‘bogus students’ who want to obtain alleged forged certificates in exchange of some bucks, sources said.
UGC said that they got allegations and proof of certificate forgery cooked up by a handful of private universities in different times which was really a matter of grave concern.
Though obtaining such forged certificates is completely illegal, these certificate holders cannot easily be traced by the apex regulatory body nor by the recruiters while offering jobs.
In order to curb this ‘illegal’ practice and to bring transparency in higher education, the UGC has come up with a mechanism to introduce the USIN for each student.
The USIN will have a 16-digit number which will be a combination of university code, admission year code, admission semester code, hall code, programme code and student serial number.
Of the 16-digit, the first three digit will be the code of respective university, next two digit will be the year of admission, next one digit will be admission semester code, next two digit will be hall code, next five digit will be programme code and finally the last three digit will be serial number of the student.
This unique number will be the registration number for each student throughout the entire course.
“We want transparency in the education system. We hope it will help us greatly”, Md Omar Faruque, Director, private university division of the UGC, recently told The New Nation.
Moreover, after the completion of any course or programme, when a student will obtain his or her certificate and mark sheet issued by the respective university, the university authority will emboss the unique number on the certificate and mark sheet.
Besides, the respective university will preserve all this information in their data bank for future use, source said.
All the students either newly admitted or previously admitted will get this unique identification number, UGC said.
“Forged certificates issued by some private universities are tantamount to fraud and therefore illegal. That’s why we have come up with a mechanism to introduce the USIN for each student,” UGC Chairman Professor Dr Kazi Shahidullah told the New Nation.
“With this unique number, the Commission will be able to trace the total identity of each student. This will greatly help the recruiters to check the educational background of the students before offering jobs,” he pointed out.
“This unique number would plug the hole of certificate forgery. We want genuine certificates,” he said.
“There are bogus students who know that certain universities have multiple problems but they want fake certificates. This unique number will act as a deterrent to these students. Their mind-set should be changed,” the chairman said.
He said that the Commission wants every university to follow the rules and regulations while running their institutions.
