Intake rules at public universities need review

Public universities in developing countries play an important role in empowering the citizens through various means. Like in other such countries, the public universities have been shaping the middle class of Bangladesh since earlier decades of the last century.
Dhaka University, the oldest and the largest public university in Bangladesh, was established in 1921 and has been contributing immensely to the self-determination of Bangladeshis and is still in the driver's seat to shape theoretical and practical understanding of different generations. Based on the quality of education, claimed to be in decline though, the university still produces enlightened figures, particularly in the arenas of social sciences and humanities. Hence a degree from this university is a dream and passion for many aspirants countrywide.
But a relevant question arises here. Is it capable of accommodating the promising aspiring students of the country?  I would argue that it does not have that capability. The present write-up would attempt to shed some light on one crucial aspect of the university, which is applicable to all public universities. Although the public universities offer Honours and Master's courses, they do not have the provision for conducting a separate entrance test for the Master's programmes. Many believe that the system is not justified from two grounds: efficiency and equity.
The efficiency of any system is modestly evaluated in terms of input cost and output benefit or outcome. In any system, private or public, efficiency is concerned with the technique in making the best use of the available inputs. Equity is rather a distributional notion which is again related to allocation efficiency. Equity asks for the ethical ground of any distribution. Any public expenditure is ideally expected to fulfill these two primary features.
As the public universities are mainly funded by the exchequers, the expenditure in public universities should consider the two aforementioned notions.
The intake of the University of Dhaka is based on the aggregate score of an admission test of 120 points, and the past academic records of 80 points. The admission test follows an MCQ method with the duration of 60 minutes. So, anyone in Bangladesh has the opportunity to gain a lifetime windfall in only 60 minutes. Well, this rule is acceptable if we consider the huge number of applicants and the poor feasibility in designing a second-best method with higher optimality right now.
But should this test be enough to make one qualified to achieve two highly subsidised degrees from the most desired university of the country?
I believe: No. Students who get CGPA 2.0 out of 4 in a four years' integrated programme should not routinely be allowed to go for a Master's degree without making them go through further assessments.
The university has the ability to provide some excellent professionals in the respective fields considering the infrastructure and faculty set-ups that it has. But it is giving low-quality inputs by choosing the low-graded students from its own Honours course, where it could have asked for high-quality inputs by relaxing the 'barriers' to entry. But it is not doing what applies to all public universities in Bangladesh. As a result, the professors are not getting the better and desired students in their classrooms and thus compromising on their course curriculums. The ultimate impact is felt in the low quality of public universities' which is creating inefficiency over higher education in the public sector.
We can see the further impact of this inefficiency on the job market, where a Master's degree can rarely give any strong signal due to the fact that there are enormous low-quality 'Masters' in the market which is not supposed to be so.
Secondly, the equity ground deserves a distributive justice among the citizens of the state. Public investment in a comparatively lower grade or less capable or less motivated individuals instead of prospective individuals is not justified. A 60-minute test for a 12th standard graduate can be the basis of entering the area of the first university degree, but it should not be the basis of getting a specialised degree in a particular discipline. The criterion to have specialisation in a particular discipline should be based on the knowledge of and interest in that discipline, for which separate entrance tests are needed. From that aspect, the reasonable question is how a public authority can curb a citizen's right to getting a desired opportunity offered by the state, despite having 'adequate qualifications'? What are the justifications of restricting the top 5th percentile students of Chittagong University, Rajshahi University or North South University from entering Dhaka University, while the university is providing the same degree to its 95th percentile students? Why not make a level-playing ground for the public before offering each single degree at public universities? This is utterly an inequitable distribution of public opportunities, which needs to be revised.  
This obstructive decision is one of the factors responsible for the gradual deterioration in the quality of the University of Dhaka as well as public universities in Bangladesh. It also disrupts the intensive structure of the higher education system.
In this context, the public universities in Bangladesh should change their intake rules and place entrance tests for each regular degree. This will encourage the undergraduate students to dedicate more time in studies and help them achieve a strong command of their respective disciplines. On the other hand, the highly qualified faculties of public universities will get enthusiastic, and become sincere in their classrooms which will contribute to changing the current despairing scenario of higher education in the public universities of Bangladesh.
The writer is an Economics Graduate of University of Dhaka, and is
currently pursuing MA in Development Economics at South Asian University, New Delhi, email: [email protected]