Dhaka: Despite tremendous crisis in higher education seats, around 1,000 precious seats at the country’s prime public university – Dhaka University – remain vacant every year as procedure does not permit to fill-up those seats.  

At a time when many students fail to get admitted to higher educational institutions due to seat crisis and suffer the worst crisis of life then Dhaka University grapples with a different problem that force it to keep vacant around 1,000 seats at the end of first year of its honours courses as there is no provision of admission in second or third year.

Every year DU starts its second year classes keeping vacant those 1,000 seats as many students leave or quit some specific subjects in the Arts Faculty by appearing at fresh admission tests to have a better subject for doing honours. So their seats become vacant and stay vacant all the way throughout the honours course at a cost of the university and aspiring students who did not got the admission chance anywhere.

According to the university the administration, every year all together 5,800 students get chance to admit themselves in 13 departments and 10 institutes of the Dhaka University. But it has been noticed every year that around 1,000 students among the total do not continue their studies at the end of first year in some specific subjects due to migration of departments or university or some other reasons. But there is no chance to fill up the empty seats in second or third year. So the seats remain empty all the way till end of the honours course.

Some students who are not satisfied with their honours subjects do not complete their first year and take part again in the admission test and get admitted to their desired subjects if they pass in the test. In addition, many leave the university if they get chance in other universities. This is how around 1000 seats of the university get empty and force the prime public university to suffer from a system loss. This is popularly called ‘Year gap’ among the students.

So, the main reasons behind vacant seats are: Having the opportunity to sit for the admission test again, department change, better opportunity of having admission in better and desired subjects and also drop-out from studies for some other reasons.

But this specific problem emerges in some departments of Arts Faculty only, not all departments of DU. The departments like Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Sanskrit and Pali, World Religion and Sanskrit Department, Islamic History and Sanskrit Department, Department of Fisheries, Department of Pottery and Crafts, History of Fine Arts, Soil, Water and Environment Department, Tourism and Hospitality Management are plagued by the perennial problem.

Dr. Najma Shaheen, Provost of Rokeya Hall, said, “It is true the university is plagued by a perennial problem like vacant seats in some particular departments, not all departments. Most of the empty seats are in Arts Faculty departments as all admission seekers could not be provided with their preferred subjects due to resource constraints.”

For addressing the particular problem, she suggested putting some less preferred subjects like Sanskrit and Pali, Urdu, Arbaic etc. be put under the Institute of Modern Languages. So students having preference can take those subjects and complete the course. This crucial academic change can also help the university raise its seat capacity in more time-befitting and practical subjects like Economics, Law, Journalism, International Relations, Applied Chemistry, Computer Science and Engineering, Applied Physics, Mathematics, Statistics etc.

Dean of Social Science Professor Farid Uddin said, “We always try hard so that no seat remains vacant. But still some seats will remain vacant. But the problem remains in some Arts Faculty subjects, but still it is an important issue. But the vacant seat issue could be resolved through discussion.”

Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique said, “As part of our plan to address the issue we are admitting 10 to 15 percent more students and planning to admit more students to particular subjects plagued by the problem. But still we can do nothing if students get readmitted to other universities giving a year loss as there is no procedure to admit students in second or third year.

Ends/RG/AMA/ 22/01/13