Admission tests for higher study

Dates for admission test at most of the public universities have been announced. This year, the number of grade point average (GPA)-5 holders has drastically fallen along with the lower percentage of pass in the higher secondary examination results. Does it mean that the GPA-5 scorers stand a better chance this time to get admission to the universities of their choice? Mathematically, fewer candidates will compete for a seat in the more fancied highest seats of learning. On that count, a student should have a better chance of making it to the list of the qualified candidates of the famed universities.
Unfortunately, the issue does not follow such a strait-jacket formula. If the first choice of the majority of GPA-holders of all the education boards is the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), certainly the prime engineering university cannot accept them all. Similar is the case with institutes or faculties like the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) of the University of Dhaka. The seats are extremely limited in some departments as well. Not all qualified candidates can think of studying genetic engineering, computer science at the DU and the BUET respectively.
An admission test itself is a messy business. It has been made messier by authorities on considerations not always guided purely by the motive of selecting the best crop. An eminent educationist has brought a serious charge of spinning money out of such admission tests against his fraternity. Candidates for higher study and their guardians are forced to go through an ordeal every year during the admission season. In order to sit for an admission test they have to be literally on the run.
Admission to medical colleges in this regard has been quite systematic. Sitting for the test at any of the joints in the country is enough. Marks secured in the test are the criteria for qualification or disqualification. Qualified candidates are placed in medical colleges depending on their marks and choices. Candidates qualified with higher marks are offered opportunities for admission to the highly rated medical colleges and those securing the barely qualified marks are usually assigned to the lowly rated ones. Even private medical colleges have been making good use of the test. They collect the results of the test and fix their own minimum qualification mark for admission.
The eminent educationist who has been campaigning for a similar synchronised admission test for all the public universities with the aim to spare candidates of the hassles, journey, anxiety and expenditure could not be more correct. Candidates can prepare and sit for a single test and then the marks scored can act as the criterion for admission to departments under different public universities depending on their choices. All the engineering universities can do the likewise.
The advantage of advance technology has to be exploited to derive the maximum benefits. On-line submission of application forms has been one such advantage most universities are now following. Why not go for a single test? Of course, science, arts and commerce students will have different tests but those should be common tests for all the public universities. It is likely to be more rational because all candidates will have attempted the same question papers. For the same level of education, such uniformity is essential.    
Meanwhile, Dhaka University's decision not to offer to candidates the opportunity of sitting for admission tests twice or for consecutive years has been upheld in the highest court. The BUET has been following this for some years but the medical colleges are not so rigid. Neither are other public universities. The inconsistency is undesirable.