CENTRAL UNIVERSITY ENTERENCE TEST

CUET 2022 Replaces Board Results For UG Admissions

    The University Grants Commission (UGC) announced the introduction of the Central University Entrance Test (CUET), which is now mandatory for under graduate admission at any of the 45 central universities in the country. Not only would this bring an end to the supremacy of various boards, the same attempts to bring merit to the order of undergraduate admissions. As a standardized test, CUET would do away with the differences in various board curriculums and force universities to have a common admission set. Hence, marks secured in class 12 board exams will not carry any weightage in university admissions. The universities, however, can use the Board exam marks as an eligibility criterion for CUET. 

       Several governments, over the years, have made attempts to replace multiple entrance tests with a single one to reduce the burden on higher education aspirants. In fact, even CUET is not new. It had been launched as the Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET) in 2010 under the UPA-II government, but had failed to gather steam since only 14 central universities had adopted it until last year. CUET is a revamped version of CUCET and it’s now compulsory for all 45 central universities to adopt it. This has come after the announcement of the new National Education Policy (NEP), which advocates the need for an entrance test for university admissions. 

         The Common University Entrance Test (CUET) is a computerised exam and will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), is likely to post details on the structure of the test on their website soon. Following the exam, the NTA will prepare a merit list on the basis of which these universities will admit students. CUCET 2022 Syllabus is likely to be in line with previous exam. The paper is expected to have various sections and about 100 MCQs from various topics like Numerical Aptitude, Data Interpretation, Analytical Skills, Reasoning, General Aptitude, Language(s) and so on. Coming to CUCET's Paper Pattern, this time it is likely for the paper to have about 3 sections.

              The application window for the examination will open in the first week of April. But unlike JEE (Main), there will be no common counselling for admission to central universities based on the CUET score. Each university is free to define its admission process based on the merit list prepared by the NTA. However, UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar did not rule out joint counselling in future. Unlike undergraduate studies, conducting admissions to post graduate programmes through CUET is not compulsory for central universities. Therefore, they are free to adopt CUET for PG admissions or stick to their own admission process for now.

                Earlier it was being suggested that the board results may still hold some validity. The recent announcement, however, has put a large question mark on the need for conducting Board exams at all. While the step is definitive and aimed at the larger vision of uniform education, it seems like one more exam for millions of students at this point. From an objective point of view, the announcement leaves many question marks for students who are at present preparing for their board exams or appearing for one. Not only do these students have to worry about their board exams now, they also need to start considering how to clear an exam they have no idea about.

                  The other aspect is the students of State Boards. The syllabus would be the same as CBSE Class 12 syllabus but what about Bihar Board Class 12 student ? Then there is the question of stream change. The CUET exams would have to be written for the subjects a student studied in Class 12. Then how would the student change the stream, if they so desire ?

                   With a longer vision and a clearer step by step implementation it might have been a brilliant idea. At the moment, it is only another examination, another painful step with no clarity. The detailed notification for CUET 2022 is still awaited. NTA is expected to begin the registration for CUET from April 1st week. It may be hoped that eventually there would be clarity and eventually it would become student friendly. But at present, its JEE, NEET and now CUET with all asking the students to prove they can come first in the race which millions are running with no finishing line.