Admissions tests used to take place in Dhaka in previous sessions but this time, the tests will be held across the divisions.

"We’ve decided not to hold online admission tests,” DU Pro-VC (academic) Prof ASM Maksud Kamal said. “We’ve initially decided to hold division-wise tests to ensure the safety of the students considering the Covid-19 pandemic."

"We’re willing to set up the centres and hold the tests after talks with the authorities of the universities in divisions across the country," he said.

A meeting of the Deans' Committee on Tuesday, presided over by Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman, took these decisions rejecting online admission tests.

Sources at the meeting said that of the 100 marks, 20 will be reserved to evaluate each aspirant’s score on the basis of results of School Secondary Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC). Previously, 80 marks were allotted to evaluate SSC and HSC results.

Admission tests will be held on 80 marks. Deans' Committee members, declining to be named, said that 50 would likely be kept for the written test and 30 for MCQ. These were 45 and 75 in the last academic session respectively.

Prof Sadeka Halim, dean of the Social Science faculty, said that the distribution of newly set 80 marks has not been determined but they would prioritise more on the written part.

The minimum criteria for applying into different units (A/B/C/D) have also remained the same and the authorities will fix the dates after the result of HSC is published.

The HSC results are usually published in the first week of May. The universities hold entry tests from the second week of September till the end of November. But this year, HSC results will be published in December, while dates for admission tests of different public universities will be set later.

This year, all 1.3 million HSC examinees will pass. It will basically make all of them eligible to sit for university admission tests.

There are currently 60,000 available seats at 39 public universities in the country.

Also read: No uniform view on HSC cancellation among students, parents