The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Monday announced that admission to all undergraduate courses in all central universities will be made on the basis of Common University Entrance Test from the upcoming academic year i.e. 2022-23. This means that from this year no weightage will be given to class 12 marks for undergraduate admission in any central university.
The CUET exam for admission to both undergraduate and postgraduate courses will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in the first week of July.
UGC President M Jagadesh Kumar said that all 45 central universities will have to give admission on the basis of CUCET exam for admission to their undergraduate courses. However, for postgraduate admissions, universities will still have the flexibility to use CUET scores as before. For postgraduate programmes, many universities are also willing to use CUET scores. We hope that all central universities will eventually use CUET for their postgraduate admission as well.
Some of the universities including Delhi University have already announced to conduct undergraduate admission on the basis of CUET score only. CUET, a computerized test, will be conducted in 13 languages: English, English, Gujarati, Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
Kumar further said that CUET will not affect the admission policies of central universities. “For example, if a university reserves a certain percentage for local students or internal students, it will continue to do so. The only difference is that these students will also have to appear through CUET like those students who will be admitted to the general seats. Reservation policies and ordinances of universities will remain unchanged,” the UGC chairman said.
Meanwhile, the UGC has exempted international students from CUET. “Among Indian students, international students will continue to be admitted to universities on a majority basis as per the current practice,” Kumar said.
NTA will soon issue detailed guidelines and UGC will issue a public notice regarding CUET on Tuesday.