At the beginning of every academic year, Delhi University sees students from across the country flocking to land a seat. Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh tells Ifrah Mufti that the common entrance test will smoothen the admission process and give a fair deal to students from stricter boards:
Do you think the University Grants Commission (UGC) has made the right decision to introduce the CUET? What will be its impact on university admissions?
I appreciate the efforts of the Government of India. It is a timely and necessary step. At Delhi University when we were admitting students through merit-based admissions, there is a complete chaos because of the 100% cut-off as the performance of students depends on their performance in the board exams. Some boards are very lenient, some are very strict and some are reasonable. However, when it comes to evaluating the students and giving them admissions in the universities, we haven’t been considering this aspect. This is very unfair on the students who are coming from stricter boards. There are a few neighbouring states of Delhi where boards are strict and their students are not getting admission in Delhi University. Very few students from these boards get admission. But students from far off places are coming from lenient boards and getting admissions. They might be bright and I am not criticising them. Some boards are liberal towards their students and that’s all right.
India is a very vast country full of diversity and we respect that. But when we have to measure all students, the parameters should be the same for all. This CUET will provide a common platform. It is in the larger interest of our fraternity and community. It will be a fair system. I am not saying this is the best system but this is the most-fair system where students will have equal opportunities and their performance in the test will decide their admission in a particular college or a particular course.
Will the introduction of CUET force students to go for coaching?
I don’t think so. We should not confuse ourselves with the NEET and JEE; the reason being CUET is based on NCERT syllabus. What I expect is that the question paper should come from that syllabus only and if the testing agency takes care of this aspect, which I feel they will, then nothing unfair will happen. The best scenario should be that a student who has performed really well in Class 12 should be performing well in the CUET as well. If we draw a correlation, it should be the right correlation. If something else happens, for example, the students scoring well in the test are not performing well Class 12 or vice versa, then we need to relook at the process of selection of questions. I feel there should be a selection process rather than the elimination process. We should not make it very difficult and unnecessary and here the best part is that we will normalise marks. If a question paper is tough and the students could not score very well, then also we will normalise this.
Won’t it be difficult for colleges to decide the admission procedure? Colleges like SRCC used to admit students scoring 99.97% and 100%. What will be the criteria now?
There will be the same criteria. Now on the issue will be not the criteria. The marks card of Class 12 will now be replaced with the scorecard of CUET. Every individual subject will have scores like maths, chemistry, physics, etc., and colleges will admit students based on the marks of CUET. We are not giving ranks here. One should not be confused here. They may give ranks but admissions in DU will be held on the basis of marks obtained in the test
Who will be preparing the question papers for this national test?
Since this is a common university entrance test, it will be conducted by the national testing agency. They will take care of all the nitty-gritty of the test and look into the diversity of the country also.