New Delhi: Post a meeting with the UGC Chairman M Jagdeesh Kumar, 8 deemed-to-be universities are now willing to implement the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) 2022, with certain observations.
During the meeting, UGC and eight deemed-to-be universities looked upon the need to introduce CUET 2022 for admission to undergraduate (UG) courses. The commission has also shared a related circular with other universities as well.
Some educators claim that CUET 2022 defines the roadmap for the future, but certain adjustments are required before the test is taken as the sole admission criteria.
Merits of Adopting CUET 2022
Commenting about the advantages of CUET 2022, Surendra, HoD, Department of Yoga, Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar said that there are two advantages of implementing CUET. A large crowd of students will be attracted, resulting in lesser chances of vacant seats and lesser emphasis on class 12 board exam marks for admissions, which doesn't guarantee admission to the institute.
Speaking about the same, Manju Chhugani, dean, School of Nursing Sciences and Allied Health, Jamia Hamdard (deemed-to-be) University, said that the implementation of CUET will hold great future, because when National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) was introduced, it was considered a evolutionary step to include admissions to nursing courses via the test.
Earlier, when the nursing admissions was done through the sole entrance test, the university received only around two applications per seat, but after including admissions through NEET, the number increased to about five applications per seat, Chhugani said.
The university had wrestled with merit-based admissions as well but the results were extremely disappointing. Some students were admitted through the Delhi Nursing Council's merit-based admissions. Of the 60 students who participated in the exam, almost 46 failed, which highlighted the quality of students coming through a merit-based admission process, said Chhugani.
CUET Mandatory for Central University UG Admissions from 2022: UGC Chairman
Raj Singh, vice-chancellor, JAIN (Deemed-to-be-University), stated that a common entrance test will take the burden from students to perform well in their board exams.
With several education boards in existence throughout the country, putting everyone at par by taking into account their boards exam marks for admission is unfair. As the National Education Policy, NEP 2020 focuses on strengthening aptitude rather than domain knowledge, a common entrance test like CUET is an obvious solution, Singh said.
Although Jain University has decided to adopt CUET from this academic session 2022-23 onwards, the varsity will also conduct its own entrance tests for candidate's admission.
Meanwhile, UGC Chairman has recently cleared the air by stating that universities are not required to pay any fee to UGC or NTA to adopt CUET 2022. Further, the universities are also not required to sign an MoU with the NTA or UGC for the same.
Further, he said that in the initial couple of years, since the trend of CUET is yet to become popular among students for admission to HEIs beyond central universities, the varsity will take admissions through their own entrance test.
When CUET gradually becomes the accepted norm for admission across HEIs and gains popularity amongst the students, the university will make a complete shift, Singh added.
Chhugani also added that in order to ensure the quality of students remains unhampered, the CUET exam must determine a student’s inclination towards a specific field, especially one as specialised as Nursing.
Moreover, the sections of the paper devoted to determining a candidate’s domain specific knowledge should be aligned with the courses so that institutes get quality students, she added.
Specifications are Anticipated
PK Shajahan, dean, academic affairs, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), said that the admissions to PG and some UG courses are offered through TISS-NET / TISS-BAT, which is conducted by the institute. These entrance exams also include general aptitude questions for UG courses.
Thus, transitioning to the CUET for UG admissions should not be a problem, because the institute can also hold round 2 at the institute’s level to check the candidate’s aptitude and interest in the specific course.
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