E-Paper
CUET phase 1 concludes with 76.4% attendance
The second phase is scheduled to start August 4 and will continue until August 20. The NTA will issue admit cards for the second phase on July 31
The first phase of the Common University Entrance Test for undergraduate admissions (CUET-UG), which concluded on Wednesday, recorded 76.4% attendance with the maximum number of candidates from Uttar Pradesh, followed by Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, the agency that administers the exam said.
According to the National Testing Agency (NTA), the attendance remained low in many northeastern states, including Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.
The exam is being conducted by the NTA in two phases — phase 1 in July and phase 2 in August. The second phase is scheduled to start August 4 and will continue until August 20. The NTA will issue admit cards for the second phase on July 31.
According to NTA data, of the 250,495 candidates allotted slots in phase one, 191,586 appeared in the exam. Of them, maximum candidates were from Uttar Pradesh (49,915), followed by Bihar (20,840), Madhya Pradesh (19,032), Delhi (16,885) and Rajasthan (14,982).
On the other hand, only 36 students appeared for the exam in Meghalaya out of 319 who were allotted slots in phase one. Similarly, the attendance remained low in Arunachal Pradesh (23.64%), Sikkim (41%), Mizoram (46.7%), Nagaland (53.4%), and Assam (63.3%).
Among southern states, while Karnataka recorded the least attendance — 50% — and Andhra Pradesh recorded maximum attendance at 70%.
In terms of day-wise data of four days on which the exam was conducted – July 15, 16, 19 and 20 – maximum attendance was recorded on the third day third (79%) and the least was on the first day (72.9%).
During the first phase of CUET, several students in Delhi complained that they missed the exams due to the last-minute change in the exam centres. The NTA, however, has maintained that students were informed well on time about any change of examination centres — all changed centres were within the same cities.
The agency has also not clarified yet if these students will be given the opportunity to appear for the second phase.
“All the grievances will be resolved within the next few days. We will go through each and every case and after evaluating the merit of grievance any decision will be taken,” said a senior NTA official.
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.
