The University Grants Commission (UGC) has announced the commencement of the Central University Entrance Test (CUET) on Monday. Now it is mandatory to give this exam for graduation in 45 central universities of the country.
In the past also, many governments were trying to reduce the burden of candidates to get higher education and instead of many entrance exams, only one entrance exam should be conducted.
In such a situation, the announcement of starting CUET is not new at all. The UPA-II government had launched it in 2010 as the Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET), but it failed as only 14 central universities adopted it.
Now it can be said that CUET is a new version of CUCET and now it is mandatory for all 45 central universities to adopt it. This comes after the announcement of the new National Education Policy (NEP), which addresses the need to require an entrance test for university admissions.
The interesting thing here is that now Delhi University Higher Cut off marks will become history. Because now the board marks of the students will not have any role for admission in a college. Candidate’s admission will be based on the score scored in CUET. This process will be applicable in any central university. However, the colleges affiliated to the Central University may decide the minimum eligibility for admission through board examination scores.
For skill-based courses having core practical components such as Music, Painting, Sculpture and Theatre, universities will be allowed to conduct practical tests or interviews with CUET. For professional courses like engineering and MBBS, admission will be given through Central University JEE (Main) and NEET.
The government is not in favor of using these scores for admission in central universities because of the diversity in the evaluation methods adopted by different boards. A government official told The Indian Express on condition of anonymity that some boards are more liberal than others in marking and this gives their students an unfair advantage.
CUET for Central Universities will be conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA). It is a computer based test which will be conducted in two shifts and can be taken in 13 languages. It is to be noted that NTA conducts JEE (Main) and UGC-NET examination.
The application window for this exam will open in the first week of April. Regarding this exam, the UGC chairman has said that the computer based entrance test of three and a half hours will consist of multiple choice questions based only on the content of NCERT textbooks. CUET will compulsorily have three parts. At the same time, CUET is not mandatory for admission in post graduation courses of central universities. However, he is free to conduct CUET. (Sakshi Saroha reports for The Indian Express)