All central universities have been told that admission to UG and PG courses should be on the basis of marks only, and it is mandatory, says M Jagadesh Kumar
All central universities have been told that admission to UG and PG courses should be on the basis of marks only, and it is mandatory, says M Jagadesh Kumar
Common University Entrance Test has been done for Central Universities plagued by technical fault, leading to criticism from students and universities about delays in the format and admissions process. UGC Chairman M Jagdish Kumar Says these were logistical issues that will be handled better next time. Part:
Universities are concerned about the delay in the admission process due to technical glitches and cancellation of CUET schedule as well as during the examinations conducted for undergraduate courses. How are you addressing those issues?
The academic session is getting delayed due to COVID, and we are slowly trying to go back to the original academic session. As far as CUET [Common University Entrance Test] Worried, if I were a student I would expect the center to be free from mess so that I can concentrate on the exam and no other factors that pop up, which happened in many cases. But look at the scale of the exam: it is one of the biggest entrance exams with 14.9 lakh students, second only to NEET. But NEET and JEE are conducted over a three-day window and the number of subjects is also limited. But here we have 27 domains and 20 language subjects, 12 Indian language subjects also and one general paper. The main challenge is to identify centers with working computers and internet connections. Based on the experience and lessons we have learned, we are confident that there will be no disturbances in the coming year. Though we allot the exam center to the students only after checking the computer system during the mock drill, in some cases the computers fail on the day of the exam. So we gave the students a window between August 25 and August 30. We sent information to students through SMS, voicemail and email whether we were canceling the exam at any centre, but some students did not see those messages and found the centre. These are the logistical issues closed on the day of the exam, which can be resolved through proper planning and the lessons we are learning from experience.
How many students out of total 14.9 lakh got affected due to cancellation and other issues. When is the CUET-UG Result likely to be out?
during the last window [for students affected due to cancellations] We expect around 1 lakh students to appear. This includes all those students who faced cancellation due to disturbances or could not actually reach the examination center on time. All genuine cases are being investigated. Our target is to declare CUET-UG result between 7th to 10th September.
There is also criticism from some vice-chancellors like JNU that the multiple choice question based test is not suitable for PG admissions. How would you respond to that criticism?
This debate about the entrance exam is going on for a long time. There is no ideal entrance exam. We need to see at what scale we are admitting students. We are one of the largest education systems in the world. When we take admission, they should be free from prejudice. Prejudice comes from human participation. For example, if I am correcting answers of the same essay type, fatigue sets in and I may give different marks to other students. Therefore, from the point of view of the objectivity of the admission process, the machine-driven examination is the best to give justice to the students. This has been agreed upon all over the world. Can we use machine-driven MCQ questions in all subjects? Of course, there can never be a single answer to this. You will argue either way on both sides. But we have to find a middle ground. There are also four types of MCQs – recall-type based on numbers and formulas, concept-based, which is based on the application of the concept and the fourth is a synthesis of information which is closer to essay-type answers. We cannot underestimate the importance of MCQ format. In the future, we will have software powered by artificial intelligence that can actually read text-based answers as well.
Reputed colleges like St. Stephens have said that they will give 85% weightage to CUET Core and 15% weightage to Interview. Is this allowed?
There is issue of discrimination at UG and PG level. If I come from a rural background and I can’t communicate well in English, it can be quite intimidating. So, if you want a bias free process, it should be based on CUET score. We have told all central universities that admission to UG and PG courses should be on the basis of CUET score only. It is mandatory for all.
What is the goal of CUET?
The advantage of having a national exam is that students from across the country will get an opportunity to attempt CUET and try to get into some of the best universities across the country. It offers a similar opportunity even if you come from a university with a rural background. 45% of our universities and 60% of colleges are in rural areas and if these students face national level exam then it will also give feedback on how to improve them. We also have many state boards which give higher marks than others in class XII examination and this will remove that disparity between states. Even if I didn’t do well in my board exams, I can do well in CUET. Students who earlier had to take multiple exams for admission in different universities will now have to take only one exam.