UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar has said that central universities will have to use CUET scores and not class 12 marks for admitting students to undergraduate programs this year.
He said that CUET is likely to be held in the first week of July.
UGC issued a notice saying that the application process for Undergraduate CUET will start from the first week of April.
Addressing a press meet, Kumar said, “From the academic year 2022-23, the National Testing Agency will conduct CUET for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. All central universities will have to consider CUET scores for admission to their programmes.”
The UGC Chairman further said that the exam will be a computer based, multiple choice test which will be easy in terms of technology.
There are 45 central universities funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Kumar said that the syllabus of CUET will be in line with the model syllabus of class 12 of NCERT.
CUET will have Section 1A, Section 1B, Common Test and Domain-Specific Subjects. Section 1A, which will be compulsory, will be in 13 languages and candidates can choose the language of their choice.
in 13 different languages
The options are – English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Section 1B is optional and for students who wish to choose a language other than that which is part of Section 1A. He said that some of the languages on offer are French, Arabic, German etc.
Kumar said that under domain-specific subjects, a candidate can choose a maximum of six domains that they wish to pursue at the undergraduate level.
Some of the domains are anthropology, accounting, book-keeping etc.
He said that there are some universities where common test is there as the eligibility criteria for admission to domain-specific courses, hence it is a part of CUET.
The UGC chairman said that the reservation policy of universities will not be affected due to CUET.
He said, “Universities can enroll candidates on the basis of CUET scores for general seats as well as reserved seats. This will not affect the existing admission and reservation policy which are as per the university ordinances.”
Elaborating further, he said that if a university has a certain percentage of seats reserved for local students, it will be able to retain it.
“But these students will also have to take admission through CUET,” he added.
Central universities like Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) have reserved half their seats for minority students. Both the universities have not yet decided on CUET.
According to an AMU official, they will take a call on CUET once they receive any communication from the UGC.
Similarly, an official of Jamia Millia Islamia said that they have not yet decided on CUET and will wait for official communication from UGC. The university had also constituted a committee of some officials to study how CUET can be conducted for admission in the university.
Kumar also said that foreign students will continue to be admitted in universities on a majority basis as per the current practice.
Universities will be allowed to conduct practicals and interviews for courses like Music, Fine Arts, Theater along with CUET.
“Institutions may give some weightage to practicals for such courses,” he said.
He also said that this year there will be no centralized counseling after CUET. Universities will have their own counseling.
CUET will be conducted in two shifts. In the first shift, candidates will be able to write one language, two domain-specific papers and a common test. In the second shift, candidates can write the remaining four domain-specific topics and Section 1B, Kumar said.
He said that the Common Entrance Test will provide equal opportunities to the students of all the boards especially the students of North East and rural areas.
CUET is also expected to reduce the financial burden on parents and students, as candidates will have to write only one test.
State universities, private universities and deemed universities can also use CUET scores for undergraduate and postgraduate admissions, Kumar said.
Delhi University and some other universities have already announced that they will admit students to undergraduate courses on the basis of CUET only.
Regarding postgraduate programmes, Kumar said that there are many universities which have adopted CUET while there are some which conduct their own exams. Universities will now have the flexibility to opt for CUET.
“We are hopeful that all universities will adopt CUET for postgraduate programmes,” he said.
NTA will soon issue detailed guidelines regarding CUET.
with agency input
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