Billed as India’s second biggest examination, which is making its debut, it will decide the future of as many as 14,90,000 students who have enrolled to take the test.
What is CUET-UG?
The Central University Entrance Test (CUET)-Undergraduate (UG) is a mandatory all-India level examination for admission to different undergraduate programmes in central universities.
It’s a single window to seek admission to participating universities/institutes.
Envisaged as part of NEP, CUET hopes to resolve the high cut-off problem and make admission a level-playing field.
14,90,000 students have registered for CUET-UG 2022. Of these, 810,000 have been allotted Phase I and 680,000 will take Phase II of the exam.
Exam schedules are divided into two slots: 9 am to 12:15 pm and 3 pm to 6:45 pm. Exam conducted in 13 languages - Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
When did it start?
Billed as India’s second biggest exam, it was to be conducted in two phases, starting July 15, 16,19, 20 and August 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 20 across 547 Indian and 12 cities abroad, including Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, UAE and Kuwait.
How was the exam conducted?
On the Computer Based Test (CBT) mode. Exam pattern was Objective Type Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs).
Which universities – both government and private – come under CUET?
44 central universities
12 state universities
11 deemed universities
19 private universities
1,58,909 candidates missed their allotted slots.
What was the fiasco?
In the second shift, exams at 489 centres were cancelled. They were rescheduled for August 12.
Poor communication added to confusion and chaos
Unending glitches
On August 8, the exam went off smoothly. But at two centres at Itanagar (Rajiv Gandhi University and NIT), where of the 36 and 154 candidates, respectively, who were scheduled to take the test, only three turned up due to very heavy landslides. The exam for candidates who couldn’t reach these two centres rescheduled for August 24-28.
Outliers
CUET score is not considered for admission to Kerala colleges under Mahatma Gandhi University, Calicut University and Kannur University. Colleges under these universities follow an admission process based on marks in qualifying exams and allotment is done through a single window online system.