Table of Contents
What has happened?
- From the academic session 2022-23, admission to undergraduate programmes in all 45 central universities in the country will take place through a common entrance test.
- Given the pool of undergraduate students in the country — over 3 crore were enrolled in various higher education institutes in 2019-20 —
- The move will have a wide impact on how they get into central universities, especially those that relied on Board marks.
- On Tuesday, the University Grants Commission (UGC) issued a public notice on the proposed Common University Entrance Test (CUET), for which application forms will be available in the first week of April.
- Even state, private and deemed-to-be universities are free to adopt the CUET, which will be conducted in 13 languages: Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu,
- Assamese, Bengali, Punjabi, Odia and English.
When the test will take place?
- The first ever mandatory common entrance test for admission to undergraduate programmes in all the 45 central universities, including DU, will be held in the first week of July.
- Admission to undergraduate courses in these universities will be based solely on the CUET score, and class 12 Board marks will not carry any weightage.
About the test
- The CUET, which is a computer-based assessment.
- The test will have three sections.
- Section 1A, which will be compulsory, will be in 13 languages and candidates can choose the language of their choice.
- Section 1B is optional and for students who want to opt for another language, apart from the ones that are a part of Section 1A.
- Section 2 will consist of domain-specific subjects and a candidate can choose up to a maximum of six domains out of a choice of 27 options that they wish to pursue at the undergraduate level.
- Section 3, which is optional, will comprise a general test which will be an aptitude test which the candidate will have to sit for only if the scores are desired by the university they are applying to.
- The complete details of the test, Mr. Kumar said, would be released by the NTA before the application window opens in the first week of April.
Delhi university
- The 2021 admission season saw class 12 Board exams scores and cut-offs reach an all-time high.
- With different boards awarding students exceptionally high marks in the pandemic year, 10 programmes in DU began their admissions with a 100% cut-off out — of 94 that had their first cut-off at 99% or higher.
impact
- With the CUET in place this year, students need only to pass their school-leaving exams.
- Within DU, the administration’s stand has been that this shift will create a more level-playing ground by doing away with concerns on varying marking practices in different boards.
- In 2021, students with the highest mean admission percentage in DU — or average scores on the basis of which students of that board got admission —
- Were from the Kerala Board with 1,672 students (95.99%), followed by Rajasthan (1,511 students, 93.01%), Haryana (2,470 students, 90.72%), CISCE (2,389 students, 90.03%) and CBSE (59,199 students, 86.48%).
How many students are enrolled in UG level?
- According to the All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) 2019-20, out of 3.85 crore students enrolled in all levels of higher education in India, 06 crore, or 79.5%, were at the undergraduate level, followed by postgraduate, with 43.1 lakh students or 11.2%.
- For now, admissions to postgraduate courses are not mandated to be held under any common entrance.
How many are studying in central universities?
- Of 7.2 lakh students in 48 central universities in 2019-20, 5.4 lakh were pursuing undergraduate programmes.
- Also, 13.97 lakh of 25.78 lakh students in state universities, and 8.4 lakh of 12.76 lakh in state private universities were undergraduate students.
Caste and religion composition
- 7% of students across higher education institutes in 2019-20 belonged to the Scheduled Castes, 5.6% to the Scheduled Tribes and 37% to Other Backward Classes.
- Another 5.5% were Muslims while 2.3% belonged to other minority groups.
- In central universities, 13.73% belonged to the SCs, 4.5% to the STs, and 9% to the OBCs, while 8.41% were Muslims.
concerns
- Admission through the CUET result was an additional expenditure of parents and students towards coaching and therefore marginalised those coming from disadvantageous backgrounds.
- They said admissions to the UG courses through entrance would mean complete erosion of Classes XI and XII, and wipe out the importance of formative assessment.
- Students, they said, might not want to study five subjects in any department in their most crucial years of school as they would focus on preparing for entrance tests.
Q) University Grants Commission was setup by an act of Parliament in 1956. Which of the following commissions recommended setting up UGC?
- Radhakrishnan commission
- Mudaliar commission
- Wardha commission
- Kothari commission
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