CUET: The other side

Delayed admissions, swathes of vacant seats and loss for local students what the CUET exam has meant for universities and why more are now pushing for alternative’ ways of admission

- Atul Krishna

In October 2023, four months after opening admissions, Allahabad University’s academic council made a tough decision it allowed its affiliated colleges to abandon CUET scores and fill 50% of their seats through other means of selection as a special case”. The council even discussed the possibility of ditching the Common University Entrance Test CUET) altogether for the 2024 admission cycle but ended up sticking with it as the ministry did not give permission” to hold its own test.

Conducted by the National Testing Agency, the CUET is a nationallevel entrance test for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the 44 central universities and other participating institutions offering general programmes of study. It was introduced by a central diktat in 2022 and replaced the Central University Common Entrance Test CUCET) and several other admission tests and policies. Before the University Grants Commission UGC) and the education ministry insisted on CUET being the only port of college entry in central universities, each had the autonomy to develop its own admission policy.

But as the experiences of multiple universities show, the change in admission process left swathes of seats vacant, delayed admissions by months and altered the nature and composition of student batches.

“Seats were vacant due to the late admission process and the delay in CUET results. Actually by the time the admission process ended, interested students had already taken admission in other universities or colleges,” said Arun Kumar Singh, deputy registrar college development), Allahabad University. It had decided to resume its own entrance test for 2024-25 but the ministry did not allow it.