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The battle for future is on as 2,81,831 young men and women applied for admission in the four units of Dhaka University’s undergraduate programmes for the academic year 2023-24. The application process came to an end Friday.
The application fee was Tk 1,050 per student. An analysis of data collected from the central admission office indicates that the university made around Tk 29.59 crore from the sale of admission forms this year, and the fee has increased three times since 2018.
After Tk 70 deduction per application for online service and bank payment service charges, the actual figure comes down to Tk 27.61 crore. Last year, this income was Tk 28.54 crore. In other words, the income has decreased by around 1 crore from last year.
Insiders however made it clear that the university administration does not benefit from this income, as the amount gained from the application process is spent on conducting admission exams.
The source said that sometimes money is spent from the university's own fund.
Fee up 3-fold since 2018
In the last six years, from 2018 to 2023, the Dhaka University application fee rose from Tk 350 to Tk 1,050. This fee was Tk 450 and Tk 650 in the academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21 respectively. It did not increase during the academic year 2022-23.
However, the application fee rose by Tk 50 in the academic year 2023-24.
On the matter, Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Prof ASM Maksud Kamal said, “This fee is determined based on the needs of the respective Dean of each unit. University authorities do not benefit from this fee.
“Due to taking the exam outside of Dhaka, travel costs, increase in paper costs, centre fee at the exam venues, the application fee has been increased.”
47 applicants fight for each seat
According to the information available from the central admission office of the university, 281,831 candidates have applied for admission to the undergraduate program in the academic year 2023-24.
So, around 47 students will fight for each seat, against 5,965 seats in four units.
In the arts, law and social science unit, 112,225 candidates have applied against 2,934 seats allocated for the students. In this unit, 38 candidates will be vying for each seat.
The maximum number of examinees will fight for seats in the science unit. Sixty-six candidates will be fighting for each seat, against 1,851 total seats in this unit. Besides, 36 candidates will participate in the exam for each seat in the business unit.
Moreover, 7,037 students will participate in the fine arts unit's test [general knowledge and drawing].
