A group of admission-seekers under the 2020-21 academic session have staged a demonstration demanding reinstatement of the usual Grade Point Average (GPA) system for sitting the admission tests of Universities across the country, including Dhaka University.
They came up with the demand on Sunday from a protest rally at the TSC area of the university campus under the banner of “General students under 2020-21 academic session.”
Rashed Shahriar, general secretary of the Socialist Students’ Front (SSF), said: “We demand the government to maintain the previous GPA in all university admission tests and take effective initiatives to expand higher education.”
“The decision to increase the GPA in the admission test at DU was unreasonable, as it would shrink higher education and increase risk in it,” added Shahriar.
They also demand that all students who want to take part in admission tests be evaluated through examination by cancelling uniform admission tests.
Students also said they will hand over the memorandum to the DU Vice-Chancellor on Monday.
This year, DU authorities have decided to increase the combined required GPA in SSC and HSC to sit for the entrance test.
Students applying from the science group are required to have a minimum SSC and HSC combined GPA of 8.5 this year. Applicants from the arts and business studies groups require a combined GPA of 8, while those applying for fine arts will need 7.
In the previous year, the combined GPA requirements to apply for admission in business studies and arts faculty were 7.5 and 7 respectively.
Due to auto pass this year, a total of 1,61,807 students got GPA 5 in Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent results for 2020.
Later, protesting admission seekers approached the Vice-chancellor and Proctor of DU for placing a memorandum in this regard but they failed to meet any of them.
