About Bangladesh
The country of Bangladesh was originally a part of India. As mentioned earlier the viceroy of India, with the ulterior motive of divide and rule, partitioned the state of Bengal, in the year 1905. This partition was annulled in the year 1911. The reason was the strong sense of brotherhood between the residents of both the partitioned regions. Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore initiated an
RakhiBandhan ceremony between the people of both Bengals. This ensued fear in the minds of the British government and the partition was annulled. After that, a long time passed. India became an independent country. In the year 1971, Bangladesh won the Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan and became an independent country itself. Bangladesh also came to be known by a new name, the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The new independent Bangladesh has successfully carried its legacy of culture, social and economic status. Bangladesh developed eight administrative divisions. Some of the administrative divisions are very important tourist spots like Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Chittagong, and Sylhet. Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. Bangladesh has a lot of forest areas including evergreen forests, semi-evergreen forests, deciduous forests, mangrove forests. In fact, a part of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sunderbans lie in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a developing country and it is growing economically. Its tourism sector provides for a large share in the economy. In fact, some latest sports activities like hiking, sea bathing, rowing, etc. are great tourist attractions. No tourist likes to miss these actions when they come to Bangladesh. If you come to study Bachelor's or Master's courses in Bangladesh, then you will have 3 or 2 years respectively to try out these activities. So this country, not only has a great heritage, a strong history behind its growth, but also fun and frolic to its brim.
Quick Facts
- Bangladesh is said to have many monuments which look exactly similar to those found in Europe. Such monuments are mostly found in Sylhet.
- The the capital of Bangladesh, that is Dhaka, is one of the largest cities in the world.
- The students may face a restriction on having pork or beef. The former is prohibited for Muslims and latter for Hindus.
- The holiday list of Bangladesh is almost similar to that of India. You will get holidays on Durga Pujas, Eid-Ul-Fitr, Christmas and many other such festive occasions. Along with this, you will get national holidays like the independence day of Bangladesh, birthdays of national heroes, etc.
- Bangladesh secures eight places in population.
Bangladesh shares the prestige of receiving the contributions of Rabindranath Tagore and the revolutionary poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, along with India. So it is quite naturally a birthplace of great thinkers, writers, philosophers, etc.- If you are a grown-up or a youth, and a citizen of Bangladesh, then you must speak with elders without making an eye contact with them. Making an eye contact with elders while speaking to them is considered to be rude.
- Just like maintaining an eye contact with the elders is understood to be a misbehaviour, using left hand to pass food or drinks or accepting gifts, etc. from someone is considered to be bad behaviour. The left hand is not considered to be the tidy hand, while the right is considered to be the clean one.
- Dhaka is also known as the City of Mosques.
- The national animal of Bangladesh is Royal Bengal Tiger.
- The names of a few of the martyrs in the language movement are Abdul Barkat, Abdus Salam, and Abdul Jabbar.
- The country contains Islam as the predominant religion. That is why, eating of pork is almost prohibited in Bangladesh.
- Bay of Bengal, which is bounded partly by Bangladesh is the largest bay in the world.
- The currency of Bangladesh is known as Taka. One Indian rupee is almost equivalent to 1.5 Bangladeshi Taka.
- Bangladesh celebrates its National Day, which is also a national holiday, on March 26.
Admission Process in Bangladesh
- In the very beginning, you must think when you want to take the admission. There are three seasons of the year when you can take the admission, namely-Summer, Fall and Spring. You must check the official websites of the universities at regular intervals, especially before the seasons of spring, summer and fall. Now, as soon as the notification of the admission is given, you must download the admission form, from the official website. Fill up the form and upload it on the website. Along with this, you will find areas where you can upload the following documents. Some universities prefer a hard copy of the application as well. In that case, you must take a print out of the admission form, fill it up and send it to the university by airmail. Along with this, you must send the documents mentioned below via airmail.
- You must submit the photocopies of the mark sheets and certificates of class 10,12, and graduation as applicable. All these photocopies must be attested by the principal or director of your school or college.
- With respect to the above requirement, keep in mind that you need to score above the cutoff GPA in your higher secondary or graduation to be able to study in any college of Bangladesh. Either you require a GPA of 2.5 in class 10 and 12 both or you require a total GPA of 6 in class 10 and 12.
- If you are taking admission in engineering sciences, then you must have Mathematics in your higher secondary.
- You require a photocopy of your birth certificate. This is required to show that you fulfil the age criterion in the college.
- If you are opting for a master's course and you are currently pursuing any job in India, then you must provide a photocopy of the appointment letter.
- You require a few passport size photographs. The number of photographs depends on the course that you want to study. Generally, this number could be 5 or 6. It is advisable to use the same photograph that you have given for visa application. The reason is that such photographs will be taken in a professional studio. If you give any arbitrary photograph, then your application might be rejected. So it is necessary that the photographs look utterly professional in the application.
- Reference and background check is a very important aspect. You need at least three referees. They can be the principal and professors of your college. They can be your ex-employers, etc. You must provide only those names and contacts as referees, who could be easily contacted by the Bangladeshi college. These people should have respectable designations. If you can give the names of a few government officers as your referees, then it is even better. They must know you well and speak really good of you. If they give a hint that you are not a good person or your character is bad, then your application will be rejected.
- Sometimes an entrance examination is conducted for a few courses. This is generally found during the application process of a master's course. You may have to clear an online entrance examination. If you get a score that is above the cutoff set by the university, you will be considered as a probable candidate. After this, all your supporting documents, academic records, references will be checked. Finally, if everything found alright, you will receive an invitation letter from the college or university, accepting your candidature.
Student Visa Application Process
You must be careful that while filling up the visa application form. You need to select the online form of student visa and not of research or internee visa. You can download the visa application form from their
official website. Although pursuing research is another form of education, in the case of Bangladesh visa, research is considered to be a scholarship. So research students will be considered as employees. They will be just like internees. When you enrol in a research program in any Bangladesh university, then you will receive some stipend in lieu of it, although you will still pursue your education. The student visa is to complete your education. You cannot apply for any job or even a research project, while you are still a holder of a student visa. You have to download the visa application form from their official website. After that, you have to fill all the fields of the form. Do not leave any field as blank. If that particular text box is not applicable to you, then give either not applicable or N/A sign or write nil corresponding to that field. If you are thinking of applying for a Bangladesh student visa, then you must have a passport with validity still remaining. To know more about the documents required for visa application, refer to the following sections. To know more about the different Bangladesh visas you can
click here.
Lifestyle
The lifestyle of Bangladeshi students is quite simple. Therefore, an Indian student who goes there to study will find the academic environment very amicable. Bangladesh universities patronize libraries and you will get a huge number of books, magazines, journals, etc. The colleges and universities don't patronize academics only. They give a platform for the students to exploit their mental faculties in all possible genres. There are quiz competitions, elocutions, intercollege debates held in most colleges and universities. There is a council dedicated to selecting school students for international debates. The name of this council is a Bangladesh Debate Council, also known as BDC. Similarly, essay competitions, seminars, etc. are very common in Bangladesh universities. In fact, only studying the curriculum and replicating that in the examinations is not pursued in most popular universities. Academic seminars are conducted on upcoming international topics and creativity of students is given a forward drive. On the other side, ragging is a common phenomenon in engineering universities.
The cost of living as you will understand from the next section is much lower than the developed countries. Along with this, a lot of Bangladesh universities offer various courses. In fact, there are a lot of engineering disciplines which you can rarely find in many developed and developing countries. If you are currently an Indian student and want to experience the academic environment and lifestyle of Bangladeshi students, then you can opt for student exchange programs. Such programs will help you to know about the Bangladeshi universities before you actually start studying in any of such universities. This will be helpful if you are a student of any undergraduate program in India. By virtue of this, you will be completing the last lap of your graduation in a university in Bangladesh. The tuition fee and accommodation expenses will be borne by the host university. One such foreign exchange program is known as the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study or the YES program. This educational program allows an exchange of students between the USA and Bangladesh or other such developing countries.
Cost of Living for Students
The cost of living of students would include the food and lodging costs. First, let me discuss the cost of food. You can think of buying breakfast and lunch from the university canteen. But it has been found out from most universities that the food that is served in the university canteens is substandard. So if you are willing to spend a little more, then you can buy lunch in any restaurant. The food quality of restaurants is good. It is also quite a value for money. Within Rs.140, you will be able to get a meal for one person. But eating in a restaurant for all the quarters of the day and for 30 days a month is very difficult. To avoid this you have to create a perfect balance between consuming food at home and dining out in a restaurant. So you can think of cooking at home. The cost of common grocery items in a grocery or supermarket is around Rs.40-50 more than that of the Indian price. This should not be a problem, as the value of
taka is much less than that of the Indian currency.
- Next cost is the accommodation cost of the students. If you stay in a rented furnished flat in Bangladesh, then it would cost you around Rs.25,000.The cost of a flat without furniture is around half of that of a furnished flat. You can stay in a rented flat with one or two other students. The cost of the entire flat can be shared by all the roommates. The bill of the utilities or daily necessities like electricity or the internet is a bit costly. This is when you compare the prices with the Indian prices. But then again, 1 INR is equivalent to 1.22 Bangladeshi Taka (BDT). So if you convert some of the bills to the Indian currencies, you will find it is almost same as that of the Indian prices.
- You can also think of residential halls. These are less costly that rented flats. The security deposits are much lesser. You need to pay around Rs.8-9,000 as a security deposit. This could range up to Rs.50,000 for rented flats. But in either case, this security deposit is refundable. The electricity and gas bills in a residence hall are much lesser than a flat. This is because a residence hall is like a dormitory. In this dormitory, more than one student can stay. Each will get a separate bed. There could be a desk, a chair and wardrobe in the room. The ratio of 3:1 is generally followed for desk, chair and wardrobe in the rooms. The different universities of Bangladesh have the facilities of residence halls. But it is advisable to opt for residence halls outside the university. This is because of the low quality of the food served in the canteens.
- You can also stay in hostels. You will get hostels within INR 1500 per month.
Let us discuss the fee of the college. If we talk about Dhaka university, then the admission fee for graduation is as low as Rs.16,000. The maximum fee may be about Rs.4,50,000 for the entire course. The variation in the fee will obviously depend upon the subject chosen. The fee structure of arts courses is lower than that of the commerce or management courses. If we talk about BRAC university, then the course fee generally ranges between Rs.75,000-Rs.95,000. If we talk about Bangladesh University, then the minimum course fee is Rs.51,000 and the maximum fee is about Rs.4,00,000. This university offers BBA, law courses, engineering courses and lots more. When you think of the course fee, you must think about the transportation cost. The transportation cost is a little less than that in India. But the bus tickets are of moderate fare ranging between Rs.15-Rs.60. The students can also avail a monthly pass of a thousand rupees. Buses will be the best solution for a student to reach their college.
Documents for University Admissions in Bangladesh
- First of all, you must apply to any Bangladesh college or university to be able to apply for a student visa of Bangladesh. You require an online invitation letter from the university or any college in Bangladesh. The invitation letter must clearly mention the course that you have opted for. It must show that they have given the admission in that college. The session of your admission must be clearly mentioned in the invitation letter.
- Next an important requirement is that your passport should have a validity of more than 1 year left. The number of blank visa pages left on the passport must be more than 2.
- You need to submit your aadhar card, your academic documents along with the visa application form. This will include the mark sheets and certificates of class 10, and 12. This is when you are applying for graduation in a Bangladeshi college. If you are opting for a master's degree, then you will have to provide the photocopies of your graduation mark sheets and certificate along with the previous documents. During the visa interview, you will have to bring the originals along with you for verification. But before that, you must submit photocopies of every document.
- You need to produce a student ID card, while applying for the visa. This ID card will be of the college or university or school where you are currently enrolled.
- You must have a sponsorship letter from the university or college of Bangladesh. This is applicable if you have obtained any scholarship for studying the master's course in the Institute of Bangladesh.
- You have to submit two passport size photographs of yours. The photographs should be very recent. It should not be more than a year old. The size of each photograph would be 45 mm x 35 mm. The background of the photographs should be white and no other colour. Your face should be completely visible in the photograph. If you wear spectacles, then it should not cover your eyeballs completely. Don't wear sunglasses and take a picture.
- You have learnt from the above section that, if you are opting for a highly specialized or technical course, then your course fee may rise up to Rs.4,50,000. Along with that the cost of accommodation, food, etc. will be included. So you need to submit your recent bank statement to the visa office. You will have to produce the photocopies of the current page of your passbook. During the interview, you will have to submit the original passbook for verification.
- You will have to produce the copy of your previous visas, especially Bangladesh visa. This is applicable for students who have visited foreign countries, especially Bangladesh, for studying a course.
- Lastly, submit the printed and completely filled visa application form along with the above documents.
