Admission in public universities

Admission to public universities appears to be a tough battle faced by students. The admission process is becoming increasingly difficult. On one hand, the cost of admission forms, that is, pre-admission cost has been soaring over the years and the agonies of running around from one university to another has been mounting on the other.
According to the University Grants Commission (UGC), there are 37 public universities and 3 international universities, each having separate examination system followed separately. Although application for admission is now found on websites of universities, the university authorities charge an exorbitant amount as fees for admission tests. Each year, forms are being distributed by universities with rate of increase in its prices varying from 10 per cent to 30 per cent. In Shahjalal University of Science & Technology(SUST), to name one, price of an online admission form for academic year 2016-17 has been fixed at Tk.1,000 to Tk.1,200 whereas it used to cost Tk.300 to Tk.350 in 2008-09 and Tk.800 to Tk.850 last year. More importantly, these forms do not serve the purpose of admission to SUST itself, let alone taking care of other universities of the country. In this way each university has kept on raising cost of admission test forms over the years and the UGC seemingly does not have a policy to control it. More interestingly, a part of the huge cost of admission forms is taken by the university teachers and in this way, the teachers are taking away Tk.100,000 per head.  
If a student wishes to buy form for other universities, his/her expenses will multiply. Buying admission forms from more than one university, i.e., pre-admission cost, is itself an expensive affair, let alone the academic costs associated with it. Needless to say that this is in addition to food and lodging cost one has to bear. Added to this is the expenditure that will have to be incurred if some one wants to apply for another university. Cost of admission test goes up further along with the hassles of travelling and cost of travel thereof. It is very likely that a lot of students will opt for a second choice, if not a third. This will mostly happen to students whose choice is not the institution but the subject they want to study. If, for example, some one wants to study electrical engineering or economics, he or she has to be content with the institution he /she is entitled to based on admission test results.  
It will, however, make things easier if someone has the institution in mind and not any particular subject. In either case, a centralised examination system is the answer as stated by a person none else than the President and Chancellor of universities who called upon the Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission (UGC) for a coordinated admission exam in universities to save students and their families from financial as well as physical hardships involved.   
A coordinated exam system is in practice in many countries around the world. There are independent organisations or government agencies to centralise the administration of standardised admission exams and the processing of applications.
In Australia, for example, all states except Tasmania have centralised processing units for admission to undergraduate degrees for citizens of Australia and New Zealand.
In recent years in Brazil, university admission criteria have been considerably amended with the introduction of a new national secondary school exam and the creation of a unified, national university application system known as SISU (Sistema de Seleção Unificada). Candidates in any Brazilian state can now apply for admission into courses available in the SISU system, even if the course of interest is offered by an out-of-state university.
Places in any given course within the system are then filled based on the ranking of the applicants in descending order according to their overall grade in the ENEM (secondary school level). The application process is divided into three stages and candidates who fail to get a place in their course/university of interest in a given stage may re-apply either to the same or to a different course/university in subsequent stages.
All public universities in Hong Kong admit local students under the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS).
Generally in Indonesia, public universities conduct their admission in a unified system. However, some public universities are choosing other selection mechanisms on their own beside the Unified National Public Universities Admission.
In Japan, there is a National Centre Test for university admissions and in Korea there is a national centre for test which takes place every year around November.
A unified admission test may be a complicated affair, but the problems need to be identified and solved. It is usually an ego problem for the universities and an inherent weakness for certain institution or disciplines for the students. Therefore, the admission process should be such that solutions are built in.
We see a centralised admission system in medical colleges and have been successful. There is absolutely no reason why we should not be successful in case of public universities.  
A coordinated admission test is not a foolproof system and has its limitations too in the sense that conducting such tests across the country is a formidable task for an organisation like the UGC with limited resources and manpower. In that case, additional manpower will have to be recruited and additional fund is to be injected.
This is a competitive world and everybody can not have what he or she wants. A centralised admission test will ensure that money is not wasted on pre-admission account and the same can be spent for academic purposes and/or on accommodation and food.
After having made all the cost adjustment in this way, the price of admission forms should be lowered further because the purpose of public universities is to make room for more students, particularly poor and meritorious students.
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