CUET did not delay academic calendar, no adverse impact on studies: Education ministry

NEW DELHI: The Union minister of state for education, Subhas Sarkar said that the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) was conducted successfully and has not delayed the academic calendars of the central universities.

An Indian national Congress, Lok Sabha member, Deepak Baij alleged that the delay in CUET was responsible for students facing difficulties in admissions to central universities due to its frequent cancellation. To this Sarkar said that is no concrete information on CUET adversely affecting students.

The opposition also alleged that there is an increase in cost of education since CUET has been introduced. To this Sarkar said: "It has resulted in cost escalation of graduation, rather the students were able to apply to more than one university with a single form and fee. This has resulted in saving on the cost and effort needed to secure admission in the universities."

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In defense of the government, Sarkar emphasised that the scale of the CUET examinations were huge and the difficulties and rescheduling were due to geo-climatic reasons. The CUET was conducted for 14,90,293 candidates and these students applied for 54,555 unique combinations of subjects across 90 universities, he added.

He further gave an example of the Delhi University admission process and how the academic session began earlier than it did last year. “Last date for admissions in the University of Delhi during the last three years were as follows: 31.08.2019 (2019-20), 15.01.2021 (2020-21) and 31.12.2021 (2021-22),” he said.

Sarkar also said that a committee of experts consisting of professors from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and other central universities has been constituted to suggest measures to conduct CUET in the coming years. CUET had 14.9 lakh registrations for undergraduate admissions in all central universities, becoming the second biggest entrance exam in the country, surpassing JEE-Mains.