As per UGC, the trimesters in private universities are to be replaced with a six-month semester, creating havoc among the students. UGC thought of bringing this change in order to elongate the semester breaks to get more time for research work, seminars, ECA and relaxation.
Coping up with a vast syllabus in a single semester of three months is indeed an arduous task. However, lengthening the amount of time per semester brings its own hassles.
Most students are worried that they will not be able to handle the pressure of too many courses. Once the semesters are shifted to six months, they will have to take approximately double the number of credits to be able to graduate in time.
Students are also concerned about the raised remuneration they have to pay at a time. Although they have to pay for student activities twice a year instead of thrice, it’s problematic for them to arrange almost twice the money they used to pay per semester.
“Even though we will get more time to study, we will need to take more courses per semester to finish our under-graduation in four years. Studying for so many courses at a time is difficult, but it’s much more of an inconvenience to pay the hefty amount for the courses,” shared B Proshad Das, a 22-year old student of North South University.
The 3rd-semester student of BBA included, “I don’t want to pressurise my parents to arrange double the amount of money per semester. In addition, it would be more strenuous for me to remember all the contents of those courses.”
Students are also anxious about dealing with the same faculty for six months. Some faculties can be troublesome, therefore, having them for such a long period might be tiresome.
“Three months go by in the blink of an eye, so we get less time to study. I would still choose to attend trimesters because if I get problematic faculties, it will become distressing to face them for such a lengthy amount of time,” expressed Minhazul Haque, a student in his 3rd semester of the BBA department at Brac University.
On the other hand, some students don’t mind the change because they believe it is for the betterment.
Sheikh Rafid, a student from Independent University, Bangladesh stated, “Why should we refuse this opportunity considering we will get more days to enjoy our semester break?”
“Currently, the semester ends before we can even grasp the courses and understand them properly. What’s the point of education if we can’t apprehend the concepts and somehow just pass the courses?” questioned the student in the 2nd semester from the CSE department.
The six-month semester is assumed to be implemented by this year. All the private universities have been making preparations accordingly to adjust to the new schedule.
“We have already revised our academic calendar and submitted our syllabus to the UGC,” said Professor Dr Atiqul Islam, the vice-chancellor of North South University, in an interview.
Students who are against UGC’s decision are hopeful that the changes might be brought to the newly admitted students only. It would be challenging to shift to the new system for the current students.
Some will struggle because of this modification, while it will be beneficial to others. Regardless of the outcome, the changes are eminent and, hence, everyone should take mental preparations accordingly.
