Bangladesh University Grants Commission (UGC) on Wednesday stressed the need for a quick solution to the ongoing crisis over the cluster-based admission tests of 22 general and science & technology (GST) public universities. The call came from a daylong workshop held at the UGC office to face the challenges of the 4th Industrial Revolution. The Innovation Wing of UGC arranged the workshop titled "Knowledge Dominates the Period of 4IR and IoT Business Applications," said a press release. “An unexpected crisis regarding the cluster admission test has created. The authorities of the 22 universities will have to find an effective solution to this crisis,” said UGC member Prof Muhammad Alamgir while addressing the event as the chief guest. Read: Pvt universities’ permanent campuses: UGC to go tough as deadline ends on Dec 31 He said the ongoing crisis can be solved if the admission process includes student-friendly aspects and the proper use of modern technology. Dr Alamgir requested the committee concerned to take appropriate steps to complete the entire admission process smoothly soon so that the students do not suffer any untoward suffering. He suggested the vice-chancellors of the universities for making efforts to ensure that a good system like such admission test won’t face question. Talking about the 4th industrial revolution, the UGC member urged the university teachers to produce graduates suitable for the 4th industrial revolution as now it is the time for frontier technology. He said the officers and employees of higher education institutes should be trained to be adapted to the technology.  “In the 4IR era, skilled people will replace unskilled people and there will be a massive change in the type of jobs,” said Dr Alamgir. Director of the IMCT Department of the Commission Mohammad Maksudur Rahman Bhuiyan presided over the workshop, while Dean of Science and Engineering School of Canadian University of Bangladesh Prof Syed Akhtar Hossain was the resource person in the event. The admission seekers fell into a trouble as the authorities have stopped the migration process from the sixth merit list of the cluster-based test. Read: UGC set to formulate policy for new public universities Since the migration process continued till the fifth merit list, the students who got chances in more than one university now have fallen into troubles to migrate to upper tier universities even though the seats are vacant. The High Court has recently issued a rule upon the authorities concerned to explain within 10 days as to why the decision of stopping migration process should not be declared illegal.

The High Court on Monday issued a rule questioning the legality of excluding students who passed SSC in 2016 from the cluster admission test of 20 general and science and technology universities. A bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman passed the order after a preliminary hearing on a writ petition filed by 12 SSC  students who passed in 2016. Barrister Anik R Haque and Advocate Saiful Islam Sohel presented the petitioner’s side while Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar stood for state. Also read: Cluster admission tests: Application process begins April 1 For academic year 2020-2021 admission, 20 universities recently issued two notices on their admission test in cluster method. The notice, issued on March 3, said students who passed SSC and equivalent exams from 2016 to 2018 and HSC and equivalent exams passed students of 2019 and 2020 are allowed to participate in the cluster admission test. Later on March 31, another notice was issued where 2017 was mentioned excluding the students who passed in 2016. Also read: Cluster admission test: DU students against any change Following this, a student named Abir Hasan and 11 others who passed SSC exam in 2016 filed a writ petition at the High Court challenging the legality of the exclusion.