Coming soon: Common entrance test for 41 central universities

Coming soon: Common entrance test for 41 central universities

Students Can’t Rely Only On Class XII Marks

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:09.04.2021

For the first time, those seeking admission to undergraduate courses in 41 central universities may not be able to rely only on their Class XII marks. With the imminent finalisation of the plan to conduct the Central Universities Common Entrance Test or CUCET, applicants will have to gear up to fill an online form and appear for the test.

The ministry of education is expected to announce the exam later in April. Earlier this week, a seven-member committee set up by the University Grants Commission in December 2020 submitted its report. The committee was tasked with recommending the modalities for the “high quality aptitude test” for admission to undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in central universities. The report recommended that the CUCET should be introduced for admission to all programmes in central universities from the coming academic year, and that the exam should be conducted at least twice a year.

However, Amit Khare, secretary for higher education in the ministry, had told TOI in March that this year the common exam will only be for admission to undergraduate courses and will be conducted only once. The CUCET is part of the new National Education Policy 2020, which states that the National Testing Agency will facilitate a single entrance exam for admission to universities across the country.

First CUCET may be held by end of June

The agency is tasked with conducting a high quality common aptitude test like the SAT examination in the US. The committee’s report said that a single application form will enable candidates to apply to multiple central universities including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Banaras Hindu University and Delhi University among others.

The first CUCET is likely to be conducted around the end of June and the results are likely to be announced in July so that the admission cycle isn’t delayed.

According to a member of the committee, the CUCET will consist of two parts: Section A will be an aptitude test of 50 questions on reading comprehension, verbal ability, quantitative reasoning, logical and analytical reasoning, general awareness and ICT. Section B will have 50 domainspecific questions.

The computer-based bilingual (Hindi and English) multiple choice test will be threehour-long. The NTA will announce an all-India merit list and candidates will get their percentile score and percentile rank. A common e-Counselling platform will be used by the universities to allot courses once a candidate meets the eligibility criteria.