Entrance test mandatory for college admissions: UGC

University grants commission (UGC) will conduct a common university entrance test (CUET) for admission to the colleges affiliated to central universities in the country.UGC said class 12 board marks will not be counted for admission to the undergraduate courses at central universities from the 2022-23 academic session.

UGC chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar said there is an example of admission happening purely based on entrance performance in India, especially at IITs.

However,  a college and university can set minimum eligibility on board marks.

Beyond the central universities and their affiliating colleges, the CUET can be used by private universities, state-backed universities, and deemed to be universities if they wish to do so.

The CUET will provide a common platform to get admission to all universities and colleges across the country. The CUET should provide equal opportunities to candidates, UGC said.

 This will be done in 13 languages including Hindi, English, Tamil, Odia, Assamese, Punjabi, Urdu, etc.

UGC said the CUET is expected to reduce the financial burden on parents and students as students do not have to write multiple entrance tests for admission in UG and PG programs.

To be sure, the CUET will be conducted for both UG and PG streams. The CUET for post-graduation level is not mandatory at least in 2022-23 even for the central universities.

The CUET for UG is mandatory for all the central universities including Delhi University, Hyderabad University, Allahabad University, Benaras Hindu University, Aligarh Muslim University, and the Central University of Kerala among others.

State-run universities deemed universities and private varsities can use CUET as their selection test for admission at the UG level voluntarily.

The computer-based entrance will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). The CUET will be conducted in the first week of July and it will be based on the NCERT syllabus for class 12.

The exams will happen in two shifts — while shift one will have a compulsory language test two domain subjects, and the general test; shift two will have for domain subjects and one language from 19 choices.