College admission seekers trapped by ‘fake applicants’

Thousands of students desperate to enrol at colleges find themselves in a fix after discovering their application forms had already been submitted online or by SMS.

Confusion prevailed among them about getting admission to the colleges of their choice even after being allowed to apply again following complaints lodged with the education boards.

Professor M Kaykobad, who teaches computer science at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and is involved in the preparation of the merit lists for college admission, feels the problem can be prevented by using registered mobile phone numbers.

Every student had to apply online or through SMS this year. They were given the option to choose from five colleges.

The Inter-Board Coordination Subcommittee prepared the lists based on the results of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations.

Education board officials said they received a number of complaints regarding ‘fake applications’.

Many of the colleges have allegedly submitted applications of students without informing them in order to put their institutes on the top of the lists.

Over 100 colleges have been served show-cause notices, though those behind the wrongdoing could not be identified.

Jessore board college inspector Amal Kumar Biswas said they had received 1,000 such complaints.

He said 16 colleges were asked to explain their position.

“BUET has made some changes to the list after we sent the complaints to its IICT,” he said.

He feels students who are victims of this fraud may have problems getting admission to the college of their choice, if the seats were filled.

A Dhaka board student, seeking anonymity, said someone had filed a ‘fake application’ using his roll number, thus blocking his chance of getting into Ideal College.

“The fake application stated the Adamjee Cantonment College to be my first choice and left out Ideal College from my list,” he said.

He also said he had learnt that a ‘close friend’ of his had done the mischief to keep him out. “Ideal College was his first choice.”

The student said he had complained to the board and had been promised a chance to apply again.

“What will be the point of applying again if the seats in Ideal College are already filled up?” he asked.

Barisal board inspector Liakat Hossain said 189 students had complained about someone having applied in their names.

He said the applications of these students had been rectified.

Five colleges under the board were served show-cause notices over the matter, he added.

According to him, the online admission system has been come under intense criticism since it leaves ample scope for one to apply using others’ names.

“The entire system is being debated for one or two persons,” Hossain said.

Under the Sylhet board, the number of such students is over 100, according to Section Officer Abul Kalam.

The authorities asked the victims to file complaints after the allegations surfaced.

The date of submitting applications was deferred from June 18 to 21 after the matter came to light.

The inter-board subcommittee also gave the chance to apply more than once in these three days, leading to a rise in the number of applicants from over 1.15 million to 3.3 million.

The increase in the number of applicants caused the software processing the merit list to crash, leading to delays, according to officials.

Dinajpur board inspector Faraj Uddin Talukder said results of over 300 victims of ‘fake applications’ were changed.

A student filed a general complaint with the police, too, he added.

A Dhaka board official, requesting anonymity, said they received the highest number of complaints.

“Many of them, trapped by the fake applicants, will not be able to get admitted to the college despite their merit,” he said.

BUET’s Professor Kaykobad, however, said it would be easy to stop such damaging fraud.

“If everyone’s mobile phone number was registered, it would be possible to send information to that mobile phone.

“The problem could be averted by giving every student a password,” he said.

He also said the problems occurred because it was the first online college admission in Bangladesh.