Hustling for admission to central universities? Here are things you should know about the Common University Entrance Test

The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Monday announced that all central universities will have to admit students to undergraduate courses via Common University Entrance Test (CUET).  This test is now mandatory for undergraduate admission at any of the 45 central universities in India.  The new rule is set to come into force from the upcoming academic year (2022-2023).  Although the CUET is compulsory for central universities, the government is still open for other institutions, including private universities, to adopt this mode of examination, instead of conducting their own. UGC’s announcement has raised many questions by students and parents about the cause and impact of this new change in the education system. Let’s dive into them one-by-one.

What is the need for a common entrance test?

The answer is simple. Instead of stressing out about preparing and giving multiple entrance tests, students can now focus on just one exam that will help them pursue higher education. Over a period of years, various governments have tried to replace these multiple entrance exams with a single test to reduce the burden on higher education aspirants. In fact, CUET is also a revamped version of  Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET) which was launched in 2010. It  had failed to gather momentum then, since only 14 central universities had adopted it until last year. But from this academic session, CUET has been made 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.

What will the test consist of?

The UGC chairman has revealed that the three-and-a-half-hour entrance test will only have multiple choice questions based on the content of NCERT textbooks, reported to IE. CUET will essentially have three parts which would include the language test, 27 domain specific tests and a general aptitude test.  

The first part, which will test a candidate on a language of their choice, will consist of reading comprehension, questions on vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms, among other things. The candidate will have to mandatorily take one language test out of the 13 languages on offer.  The second part will test a candidate’s domain-specific knowledge. This section offers a total of 27 domains, and a candidate can choose to have her knowledge tested in at least one and a maximum of six domains. The third part of the CUET  will be a general test on current affairs, general knowledge, general mental ability, numerical ability, quantitative reasoning (simple, application of basic mathematical concepts arithmetic/algebra geometry/mensuration/stat taught till class 8), logical and analytical reasoning. A candidate will appear for the general test only if it’s desired by the programme and university of choice.

Will Universities give no weightage to class 12th Board exam results?

According to The Indian Express, a govt official stated that some Boards are more generous than others in marking and this gives their students an unfair advantage over others. It is due to this “diversity” in evaluation methods that led the government to decide against using class 12 results for admission.

Who will conduct CUET and When?

CUET is a computer based test which will be conducted by the National Testing Agency in the first week of July. As per IE, The test will be held in two shifts and can be taken in 13 languages — Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu, Assamese, Bengali, Punjabi, Odia and English.  The application window for the examination will open in the first week of April. As of now, there will be no common counselling for admission based on CUET score but UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar did not rule out joint counselling in future.

What does this mean for UG admissions at reputed central universities, like the Delhi University?

Sky-high Cut-off marks will now be a history for admission to UG courses in Delhi University. An aspirant’s class 12 board results will have no role in determining his/her admission to a college or a programme. It will be based only on their CUET score. At best, colleges affiliated to Delhi University — or any central university for that matter — can use Board marks as the minimum eligibility criteria for admission. For skill-based courses such as music, painting, sculpture and theatre, universities will be allowed to conduct practical exams or interviews along with CUET.

What about postgraduate admissions in central universities?

The government has not made CUET compulsory for admission to PG programmes in central universities. The universities are free to adopt CUET for PG admissions or stick to their own admission process for now.