CUCET for UG, PG admission to 41 central universities: Panel Report

NEW DELHI: The committee constituted to explore the possibility of having a common entrance test for admission to all central universities has recommended expanding the CUCET to cover all 41 and having the National Testing Agency (NTA) organise it from this year itself. The NTA also conducts the major engineering and medical entrance exams, JEE Main and NEET.

What is CUCET? It is the Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET) which, thus far, has covered a handful of central universities. Many of the best-known central universities have opted to manage admissions on their own based on their own policies. Some hold entrance tests while others, including Delhi University, grant admission on the basis of Class 12 board exam results. That may change if the Centre adopts the recommendations of the committee led by Raghavendra P Tiwari, Vice-Chancellor, Central University of Punjab. The report cites the National Education Policy 2020’s provision on university admission.

The RP Tiwari committee has submitted its report to the ministry of education in which it has recommended expanding CUCET 2021 to all 41 central universities. “The CUCET will make admission policy fairer by bringing all candidates on one platform. Currently, there are very large variations across various National/ State Boards, and in the absence of a common test, the selection process leaves many students unsatisfied,” the committee has argued.

NTA for CUCET 2021

The committee has recommended that the CUCET be “introduced for admission into all undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in all central universities from the upcoming academic year (2021-22)”.

The report says: “The National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct the test, evaluate and publish the test score and the normalized board score card which will be used by candidates and universities for their admission purposes.” So far, CUCET has been conducted by a central university.

The committee says this will simplify the admission process by introducing a single application form, via the CUCET 2021 registration, replacing the different forms issued by different institutions.

CUCET 2021, NTA, board exams

The report recommends that the Class 12 board exam results be relegated to the level of “eligibility criteria” rather than be the deciding factor for admission to undergraduate (UG) programmes. “However, the eligibility criteria for all levels will remain as per those of the participating university and will be available to the candidate under the options on the online application once it is launched,” the report says.

The committee however has allowed some leeway to universities to frame admission policies within this framework. For UG admissions, it has recommended that the CUCET score should be given a minimum of 50 percent weightage and wherever board marks are being used, the should be normalized using CUCET.

“A formula for normalization of board marks for candidates from all boards is to be developed by NTA,” says the report. It will be supported by Delhi University’s IT team.

For this year, the committee has recommended granting 50% weightage to the board examination results. “Should the situation arise, 50% weightage for Board examination results may be considered for admission for the current academic year 2021-2022 and normalized Board score may become applicable from the next academic year,” says the report.

CUCET for PG admission

The entrance for PG programmes shall be conducted on the pattern of those organized for Delhi University or Jawaharlal Nehru University by NTA. For PhD-level, admissions in the research programmes will be done on the basis of the University Grants Commission’s National Eligibility Test (UGC NET) score.

To bring students from the different boards to the same level, the Tiwari committee has recommended that for UG level, major disciplines common across all 10+2 (Classes 11 and 12) levels be clubbed in five to six groups and it should be able to cover all UG programmes run by all universities.

NTA will continue to conduct separate entrance tests for professional courses like MBA, BTech and LLB.

CUCET 2021: Online counselling

The report has recommended an e-counselling process for admission to various courses, following the entrance test. The report has also suggested universities to consider different board examinations happening at different times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Flexibility for the same should be considered in e-counselling platform,” the report says.

As per the recommendation, the seat allocation to be displayed to all candidates till payment has been made by the student for securing admission and admission granted by the university. It states: “The admission criteria will take into account the local issues of the university including reservation or quota at [a] particular university,” says the report.

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