60% attended debut edition of CUET-UG, says NTA

According to NTA, while the CUET-UG was successfully conducted across the country on the last day, technical issues were reported at a centre in Jharkhand and the exam for 103 affected students will be conducted shortly. “The attendance across the country is estimated to be about 60%,” the agency said.

The debut edition of the Common University Entrance Test for undergraduate admissions (CUET-UG), which concluded on Tuesday, recorded 60% consolidated attendance across the country for all six phases, the National Testing Agency (NTA) said. The agency is aiming to announce the results in the next 10 days, officials said.

The debut edition of the Common University Entrance Test for undergraduate admissions (CUET-UG), which concluded on Tuesday, recorded 60% consolidated attendance across the country for all six phases, the National Testing Agency (NTA) said. (PTI)

According to NTA, while the exam was successfully conducted across the country on the last day, technical issues were reported at a centre in Jharkhand and the exam for 103 affected students will be conducted shortly.

“The attendance across the country is estimated to be about 60%,” the agency said.

An official at NTA said that in areas where there were central universities, including Delhi, the attendance was recorded between 75% and 80%. “The 60% attendance is calculated from across the country. This time, the universities of North-eastern states were exempted from CUET due to operational difficulties. Therefore, attendance was recorded less in those states. Overall, the CUET was conducted successfully across the country,” said the official, asking not to be named.

University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said the commission will examine the possible reasons behind the 60% attendance. “We are aiming to announce the results in 10 days from the last exam date,” he said.

“In Delhi, the overall attendance in all phases was recorded between 75% and 80%. This is the highest attendance in a given region,” the UGC chairperson added.

The CUET exam, which was initially planned in two phases, had to be conducted in six phases due to multiple cancellations and postponements of papers after technical issues were reported at the examination centres. While the first phase was conducted in July, the remaining five phases were held throughout August.

The exam has been conducted across 489 examination centres located in 259 cities across India and 10 cities outside India. A total of 1,490,000 candidates had registered for the examination.

As per NTA data, while 1,204,000 candidates were slated to take the exam in the first five phases, 286,000 candidates were scheduled for the sixth phase that was concluded on Tuesday.

“The fourth and last day of Phase 6 of CUET (UG) – 2022 i.e. 30 August 2022 (Tuesday) was conducted successfully for 140,559 candidates in 444 examination centres throughout 239 cities including 04 cities outside India (Muscat, Riyadh, Dubai, and Sharjah) in both slots,” NTA said in a statement.

The agency said that as per the initial reports of Tuesday, due to slow internet speed, the examination at Radha Govind University, Ramgarh, Jharkhand could not be conducted. “However, a detailed report is awaited. Examination for 103 affected candidates will be conducted shortly,” it said.

On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh had the highest numbers of candidates (52,885) with 125 examination centres, followed by West Bengal (10,744) with 35 centres.

The Union government said in March that it would conduct CUET-UG in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and made its score a mandatory yardstick for all central universities while keeping it optional for others. Around 90 universities, including 43 central universities, are participating in CUET-UG this year.