New VEXU team from Bangladesh. Student eligibility question with non standard university calendar

VEX V5 Robotics Competition VEX U
1

Hey y’all,

We’re a new VEXU team based in Bangladesh (a country with practically no existing VEX ecosystem) and we’re planning to travel to a neighbouring country to compete at the VEXU Asia Open Signature Event in December 2026. Our goal is to qualify for the 2027 World Championship, and we’ve been doing our research carefully before committing to purchasing parts, arranging sponsorship, and applying for visas.

We’ve hit a student eligibility issue that we’re hoping the community, especially anyone from southern hemisphere, might have experience with.

Due to Bangladesh’s university enrollment timeline, almost all of our team members graduated from secondary school in June/July 2026 and will not begin university until after March 2027. Only one member is currently enrolled in post-secondary education. The rest have university placements for 2027. We are simply in a gap year created by our country’s academic calendar, not by choice.

We understand that rule VUT6a of the Override Manual requires members to be matriculated in a post-secondary school, or to have earned a post-secondary diploma within 6 months of Worlds. Our members graduated secondary school approximately 10 months before Worlds, so the 6-month window doesn’t apply. We’re also aware that VUT6b explicitly excludes those not enrolled in post-secondary education. Our members are 18+, have completed secondary education, and are genuinely university-bound. The gap is purely a product of our country’s academic calendar.

Our questions:

  1. Has anyone from a country with a non-standard university enrollment calendar (Australia, New Zealand, or similar) navigated a comparable situation? If so, how was it resolved?

  2. Is there a known regional exception process for situations like this, and who would be the right person to contact — the RSM, VEX support directly, or the event organiser?

  3. We’re currently unable to register on events.vex.com due to a separate platform issue with Bangladesh. Could a registered team or coach post an official Q&A question on our behalf while we resolve this?

We’ve already emailed the Asia Pacific competition support email with both the registration and eligibility issues, but wanted to reach the community in parallel as we know this forum has a lot of institutional knowledge about edge cases like this.

Any help or pointers would be hugely appreciated. We’re genuinely excited about bringing VEX to Bangladesh and want to make sure we do everything by the book.

2

RSMs are technically now associated with the RECF competition. I don’t see a support structure for the events.vex.com process. So I’d assume your best contacts are [email protected] (who may be able to point you in a better direction). And maybe [email protected]? At least here in the US I don’t think we can officially start vex U until we begin university even if on a “gap year”. I hope we can get you an answer.

once you get registered for the vex program you should be able to register for events as needed.

3

Hi artificialtaco,

First of all, a massive congratulations on taking the initiative to start Bangladesh’s very first VEXU team! Bringing the VEX ecosystem to a new country is no small feat, and your dedication to doing things “by the book” while navigating these early logistical hurdles is incredibly commendable. We are genuinely excited about your passion and want to see how we can further support Educational Robotics Competition growth in Bangladesh.

The Global Robotics & Science Foundation (global-robotics.org) is proud to serve as the officially authorized nonprofit partner for VEX Robotics and the exclusive competition pathway for teams seeking to qualify for the VEX Robotics World Championship.

Regarding your eligibility and registration questions we want to make sure your case is handled through the official, expedited channel.

Please reach out directly to [email protected] to clarify your situation.

We look forward to hearing from you and helping you get this sorted out. Best of luck to the team—we hope to see Bangladesh represented on the global stage soon!

Asia Program Support Manager team.