Seven public agricultural universities are going to hold a uniform admission test for the first time on Saturday after a lot of efforts. Nearly 40,000 admission seekers are going to appear for the exam against 3,555 seats in these universities for the 2019-20 academic year.

The seven universities are: Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Sylhet Agricultural University, Khulna Agricultural Uni-versity, Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, and Patuakhali Science and Technology University.

The exam will begin at 11am at six centres of BAU, BSMRAU, SAU, PUST, Chittagong Veterinary and

Animal Sciences University, and Sylhet Agriculture University.

The Bangladesh Agriculture University (BAU) vice-chancellor, Prof. Lutful Hassan, told The Independent: “We have completed all preparations to hold the uniform admission test on November 30. It was a long-standing demand of the students and guardians to reduce their sufferings. We hope next year the remaining universities will follow our example.”

About the preparations, he said they have already published the seat plans, following the application of the students where they prefer to sit. Besides, the admit cards have already been issued, he added.

He urged the admission seekers to follow the instructions strictly. “If any admission seeker adopts unfair means, tougher action would be taken,” he added.

The additional registrar (academic) of BAU, Sarwar Jahan, told The Independent: “All preparations have been completed. The exam will begin at 11am and end at 12 noon.

In the common admission test, candidates will have to appear for an exam of 100 marks on multiple choice questions in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and biology. Besides, 40 marks from the SSC and 60 from the HSC results would be taken into account before making the final result.

If a student commits a mistake while answering a question, 0.25 marks would be deducted, BAU sources said.

BAU sources said results would be published on December 5. Before that, an apex body meeting would be held at the BAU on December 4 with University Grants Commission representatives.

About the seating arrangements, Sarwar Jahan said there are around 12,660 seats in BAU, SAU has 9,307 seats, BAU has 5,000, Sylhet Agriculture University has 3,000, PUST has 4,000 and Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University has 2,000 seats.

Prof. Lutful Hassan said: “A uniform exam is necessary to reduce the sufferings of students. The rest of the universities can adopt it and hold uniform exam under the category of Science and Humanities. The overall admission process should be changed to make it easy for the students.”

The holding of the cluster system of admission test was an overdue issue. The system was proposed in 2008.

Since then, several committees have been formed and meetings held, but no headway could be made for various complexities, one of them being cutting the income of universities by selling admission forms.

Finally, the seven agricultural universities agreed to launch the cluster system of admission test for the first time.

The uniform admission test is being conducted under the supervision of the BAU authorities this year. This supervision would go on a rotation to another university from next year.

The general universities and other science and technology universities have still not been able to arrange such a common admission test despite many attempts.