Common University Entrance Test for all UGC-funded Central Universities in July

The University Grants Commission on Monday (March 21, 2022) announced that the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for admission in Undergraduate programs from the academic session 2022-2023 in all UGC-funded Central Universities will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in July.

In a public notice, the Commission informed that application for CUET UG will be available in the 1st week of April 2022 and that it will be held in 13 languages namely Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu, Assamese, Bengali, Punjabi, Odia and English.

Apart from the eligibility criterion of different universities, Class 12 board examination marks will not have any bearing on the admission of the students.

There are 45 central universities funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The syllabus of the CUET will be mirrored with the Class 12 model syllabus of the NCERT, UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar said at a press briefing.

The CUET will have Section 1A, Section 1B, general test and domain-specific subjects. Section 1A, which will be compulsory, will be in 13 languages and candidates can choose the language of their choice.

Talking about the benefits of CUET, Kumar said it will provide equal opportunities to students from across boards, especially to those from the northeast and rural areas.

The CUET is also expected to reduce the financial burden on parents and students, as candidates will only have to write one exam.

The state universities, private universities and deemed to be universities can also use CUET scores for undergraduate and postgraduate admissions if they want, Kumar said.

Delhi University and some other universities have already announced that they will only admit students to undergraduate courses on the basis of CUET.