UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar said CEUT UG is mandatory in all 45 central universities and all universities have joined it (File photo/News18)
This time, the UGC plans to ensure that students get their first choice of CUET exam center as soon as possible. There is also a plan to ensure that the exam centers are within 100 km radius of their residence, Kumar said
Common University Entrance Test (CUET) 2023 With the application process ending on March 12, there is a lot of anticipation among students on how the entire process, which is set to begin on May 21, will go on. Speaking to CNN News18, UGC Chairperson Jagdish Kumar assured that the exam pattern will be the same as last time and efforts are being made to make it easier this time.
“This year, the pattern will be similar. It is an online multiple choice based test. It has sections 1A and 1B. Section 1A has 13 languages. Students can choose any of these languages and can write in any of these languages as the medium of examination. Section 1B has 20 languages, it has Indian languages as well as foreign languages like French, German and Chinese. Students can also take paper from here. Then there is section 2 which has 27 domain topics starting from accounting, zoology etc. all kinds of subjects. Section 3 is a common test which any student who wants to write can write,” said Kumar.
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Changes in CUET this time to ensure smooth process include:
Last year students could choose only 9 subjects while this time they can choose 10 subjects.
This time the UGC plans to ensure that students get as many exam centers as possible of their choice. There is also a plan to ensure that the exam centers are within 100 km radius of their place of residence.
Students coming from rural areas will have the option to apply through Exam Help Centers. UGC has opened 25 help centers across India so that students can go there and get help in applying online.
The UGC chairman also said that this time the plan is to ensure that there is no delay and the academic session starts from the first week of August. “Last time the admission process was delayed due to a technical glitch as we were recovering from Covid. This time we had announced the CUET date in December last year itself so that the students would know in advance that the exams would be held from 21st May to 31st May. May be in July, academic session may start from August 1, so there will be no delay this year,” said Kumar.
“Last year there were some problems, but you should see the scale at which the testing was done. Around 14.9 lakh students were registered, and exam was conducted in 5 weeks in 450 centers, most of the exams went smoothly, but some centers had complaints, so this time we are checking for the availability of each center . With computers and proper infrastructure we are already identifying these centres, especially from our past experience we know which centers are good and which need to be avoided and which can be added. The exercise has started. It is our wish that the students need not be worried about the exams,” said Kumar.
Around 200 universities likely to register under CUET
CEUT UG is compulsory in all 45 central universities and all universities have joined it. The exam is open to other universities, last time around 89 universities participated. Kumar said that this number had already crossed 150, now we are expecting around 200 universities to register this time.
“A lot of universities may not be registered with NTA but once the exam is conducted they can use the score for admission, I estimate around 200 universities will use CUET score this time as it is a transparent process, it is a level playing field. Students and universities can do away with the hassle of conducting such exams across the country,” the UGC chairman said.
Like last year, this time also admission will be done on the basis of CUET marks. The same pattern will be followed this year as well, except for a few courses like sports and performing arts where some percentage may be given in practical exams. Jamia University and Aligarh Muslim University adopted CUET. This time both the universities are planning to include more courses under CUET.
Will CUET give a boost to the coaching business?
Jagdish Kumar said, “Coaching profession is a concern raised by some, but diversity should be seen how it has increased since CUET. Students from rural areas who were never represented are now joining universities Students no longer need to worry about scoring 90 percentile, those who have scored 60 percentile in 12th exam can also apply and get admission.
“We are restricting our syllabus to class 12 and students are anyway appearing for board exams, it is fresh in their mind. If students can concentrate and perform well in board exams then that is enough and sufficient to score well in CUET, Also IIT Kanpur is coming up with a new portal called Saathi which is an online platform where students can study subjects You can practice questions and answers. Which are more science based but have plans to expand to more subjects,” he added.
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