Around 14 lakh students will appear for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET-UG) for Undergraduate Admissions (CUET-UG) this academic session, which is 41% higher than last year – a 50% increase in the number of female students and There was a significant jump in them with applications from Jammu and Kashmir, northeastern and southern regions – when the exam was introduced in central universities across the country for admission to UG courses, said a top official.
This year, in the second edition of the entrance exam, 13.995 lakhs have submitted their applications out of a total of 16.85 lakhs students registered for it. Last year, in the first edition, 9.9 lakh students submitted their applications out of 12.50 lakh students who had registered.
“In 2023 CUET-UG, a total of 16.85 lakh students registered. Out of 16.85 lakh, 13.995 lakh paid the application fee and submitted the application form – an increase of 4 lakh students from its first edition when 9.90 lakh students applied. In 2023, there is a 41% increase in the total number of students appearing for the exam,” said M Jagadesh Kumar, chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the schedule for CUET-UG 2023 on December 15, 2022. The application process started from February 9 and the form submission date has been extended from March 12 to March 30. 21 May.
The first edition of CUET, held during July-August last year, was marred by chaos and confusion with both technical and administrative glitches. The testing agency had to cancel the exam at several centers in a few days.
As compared to last year, this year the application process has seen an increase of 50% in female students and only 34% in male students. Of the 13.99 lakh likely to sit for CUET-UG in 2023, 6.51 lakh are females, and 7.48 lakh are males. While in 2022, out of 9.90 lakh students who applied, 4.34 lakh were female, and 5.56 lakh were male as per the officials.
Kumar also said that the number of participating universities has been increased from 90 in 2022 to 242 in 2023. This significant growth indicates that CUET-UG is becoming a popular option for admission to UG programmes,” he added.
The five central universities which have received the maximum number of applications for CUET-UG in 2023 are in this order: Delhi University (DU), Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Allahabad University, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University and Jamia Millia Islamia. UGC officials said that the same sequence was to be maintained in 2022 as well.
Increase in applications from J&K, NE, Southern regions
Like the first edition, the top three states from where the maximum number of students will appear in the second edition of CUET are Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Bihar. However, a significant increase has been observed in the number of students applying from Jammu and Kashmir. “There has been a huge jump in the number of students from the Jammu and Kashmir region. In 2022, a total of 13,021 students took the CUET-UG from this region. But in 2023, the number is 82,655, representing an increase of 6.3 times,” Kumar said.
Similarly, this year there has been a 31% increase in the number of students appearing for the exam from the North-East region (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim) as compared to 2022. While 59,208 students took the CUET-UG. In 2022 this figure is 77,365 in 2023.
Among the five southern states – Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana and Tamil Nadu – the largest number of students appearing for the exam will be from Kerala. “This year 56,111 students from Kerala have applied for the exam as compared to 37,303 in 2022, which is an increase of 51%. The second highest number of applications submitted in 2023 is from Tamil Nadu, which is 24,462 – an increase of 45% compared to 2022,” said the UGC chairman.
Jump into applications from reserved categories
As per the application statistics, among the different categories of students (ST, SC, OBC-NCL, General-Unreserved, EWS), there has been a significant increase in the number of applications submitted by ST category students. A total of 95,119 ST students have applied for the exam this year as compared to 58,881 in 2022, showing an increase of 61.5%.
Similar growth has been observed in other categories as well. For SC category students, the applications submitted in 2023 are 1,40,307, which is an increase of 35.5% as compared to 2022. This year the number of applications for OBC-NCL, General-Unreserved and EWS category students is 4,61,022. 6,42,443 and 60,611 respectively. This shows an increase of 45.2%, 39.6% and 20.5% respectively as compared to 2022.
Meanwhile, last year students from 59 countries submitted their applications for CUET-UG, which will increase to 74 countries in 2023, with 1,000 students spread across Europe, Asia, America and Gulf countries.
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