The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to bring a significant change in the education system. It states there will be common entrance tests at central universities held from this academic year which is 2022-23. The students would be admitted into all the undergraduate courses based on this test.
What is the Common University Entrance Test (CUET)?
The entrance test will take place at all the 45 centrally recognized universities under the guidance of the National Testing Agency (NTA). It will be a computerized test held at nearby or allotted test centres. Also, it will include different languages like Bengali, Punjabi, Hindi, English, Assamese and furthermore.
This test becomes mandatory for any student looking to be admitted to any central university. The marks scored by the student in 12th grade will not carry any weightage as per the amended policy.
This test is not a new concept and has been tried on by many more governments before. Back in 2010, the Congress government came out with the Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET), which failed to garner support amongst the Institutions. Since it was not compulsory, many institutions did not want to change their old working system. However, the new entrance test is mandatory for all to abide by.
What should a student expect in the entrance test?
The UGC Chairman Jagdesh Kumar said that the three-and-a-half-hour test would take place in the form of multiple questions. Also, the syllabus for the students will be the same as per their Class 12th NCERT books.
The exam will be divided into three parts, and the first part is where the student will choose a language of her own choice. After that, this part will include paragraphs, reading comprehensions, synonyms, antonyms. Students can opt for an additional language if they want.
Moving on to the second part of the exam, now the student can choose from 27 domain subjects which contain Economics, computer science, chemistry, Home science, accountancy, Political Science and many more, depending on the domain they are interested in. At the maximum, one can choose six fields.
Part three of the exam will be a general test that will include questions on current affairs, mental ability, logical, analytical reasoning and more, depending upon the University selected domain. However, It is upon the university if they want to go ahead and take the general test or if it is mandatory, depending upon the domain and the courses the university provides.
Which universities are covered under the CUET?
As mentioned above, only 45 Central Universities are adopting this policy. Some of these names are Delhi University, Aligarh Muslim University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Banaras Hindu University, and many more prominent central universities will follow this criterion for the upcoming session.
The National Testing Agency(NTA) releases a notification for CUET
The NTA finally issued the official notification regarding the Central Universities Entrance Test 2022 on its official website (https://nta.ac.in/) for Under-Graduate (UG) admissions in various Universities across the country. According to the notification, the application process will begin on April 2, 2022, and the last date for applying will be April 30, 2022.
