Feature

Fake Admissions in the Public Universities

Owasim Akram

Academic fraud appears to be on the increase in Bangladesh, especially in the public universities. It has resulted into a costly threat to the society, to their efficient operation and to public trust in the reliability and security of the institutions. The increasing competition to get admitted in the public universities has become a common phenomenon as the certificates or references from these universities are used as ladder to enter into the highway of life. Along with such competitiveness, numerous and complex forms of misconduct have developed, amounting to a wide variety of academic fraud. Fake admission is probably one of the worst patterns of such academic misconducts. The recent debate regarding fake admissions in Dhaka University and in others are clearly demanding for remedies otherwise the total education system of the country will be at stake.

There is a strong network working for the process of fake admission in public universities. Influential student leaders, officials at the concerned departments and high officials of the administration are involved in the forgery of admission. False admission cannot take place without their involvement.

Evidences claim that students pay bribes to the concerned persons amounting more than lacks which vary from department to department and those amounts are disbursed among the members of the network. In most cases students do not have their names in the merit list which is published after the admission tests. In some of the cases identified so far, students have registration and roll numbers everywhere except in the dean's office, cases of false registration and roll numbers were found only with the concerned department and nowhere else. A section of employees at the deans' office were involved in the forgery by increasing the numbers in admission tests and replacing their names in place of the students who did not take admission even after being qualified. Thus the process steals the bright future of the meritorious students who could not get an admission. We are not generally inclined to think of fraud in connection with education and academic research, in fact traditionally education, educators, educational institutions and the education system have been regarded as major purveyors of truth, honesty and positive values. We can identify major causes of fake admissions which include-

* Weak management
* Lack of specialised supervision, no quality management;
* Absence of willingness to produce better
* Inadequate internal external supervisory control
* Absence of control mechanism
* Weak administrative procedures and regulations
* Inadequate salaries
* Low Qualified Human Resources

Fake admissions in the public universities or in any educational institutions have a negative impact on the quantity, quality and efficiency of educational services and thus also on learning results. The ethical fall-out caused by fake admission is particularly obvious in the education system of the country. The imparting of ethical values and behaviour is considered a central task of education. Corrupt practices, particularly fake admission itself, undermines an education geared to ethical values, and shatters confidence in the quality of the whole education system generally and of those public universities in particular. When adolescents become familiar with corrupt practices and see that admission in the universities depends not on performance but on bribery and fraud, unethical patterns of behaviour are passed on to new generations and become more widespread. As a result the students ultimately lose the spirit of education.

Fake admission reduces the chance for a meritorious student to get higher education and to contribute in society. On the other hand, students will be more encouraged to get admission in the private institutions having lost the confidence on public universities.

Strict policies and initiatives are now need of the time. Therefore there is a need of in-depth assessment to stop such practices in public universities. The establishment of a platform is important where students, guardians, teachers, researchers and high officials of the universities can share their views and recommendations which are necessary before taking any steps or policies.

Some recommendations are here to stop corrupt practices in the admission process taking into account the causes mentioned here.

* politically independent administration
* clear-cut management rules and procedures
* Strengthening the participation of parents/ citizens in monitoring admission procedures.
* Clear standards and rules for merit-based staff recruitment and promotion of staffs with satisfactory salaries.
* Recruitment of staffs with maximum educational qualifications. (In most departments the administrative tasks are run by a simple HSC pass or simple graduate clerks, whereas every administrative staff in private universities holds a minimum Masters degree.)
* clear criteria for student admissions and examinations
* systems for monitoring compliance with rules and applying punitive measures in case of non-compliance
* Internal and external board of control for public universities to monitor the overall quality.

The example of Azerbaijan government can be a lesson for us. After numerous cases of corruption at universities in connection with the admission of students became public, the Azerbaijani government transferred responsibility for admissions to a newly established state admission committee. This committee supervises all national admission examinations for universities and the subsequent selection of students for all state universities. The general public see that this institution has significantly reduced corruption in respect of university admission.

Corruption jeopardizes the success of long-term initiatives in every area of development of a country. But corruption in universities where the future leaders of a country are produced causes heavy burden on a nation. Therefore, preventing fake admission is a must. Corruption in education seriously undermines political, economic and social development and has a devastating effect on the lives of students. '

(M.S.S. student of the department of International Relations, University of Dhaka. Comments are welcomed at- bibek_bodh@yahoo.com)