A day after the University Grants Commission (UGC) announced that a common university entrance test (CUET-PG) will be conducted for admission to masters’ courses in central universities and other participating institutions, 35 out of 45 central universities will opt for the option, the admission bulletin released by the National Testing Agency (NTA) stated.
On the other hand, some prominent universities including, Delhi University (DU), Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) won’t be opting for the CUET-PG this year.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Thursday announced that a common university entrance test (CUET-PG) will be conducted for admission to masters courses in central universities and other participating institutions.
The CUET-PG is in line with the similar entrance exam or CUET-UG that will be conducted for admission to undergraduate courses from this year. While the UGC has made CUET-UG mandatory for all central universities, CUET-PG will remain optional for now.
“The CUET-PG was launched so that students don’t have to write multiple entrance examinations. We have decided not to make it mandatory for anyone as of now. We hope that many universities will use CUET scores for their postgraduate admissions,” said UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar.
The CUET-PG will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is also conducting CUET-UG, in July last week. It will be a computer-based exam for which registrations are open from May 19 to June 18. The programmes for which the exam will be conducted include MA in different disciplines, LLM, BEd, MEd, MSc in different subjects, MSW, MPharma, MCA, and postgraduate diplomas in several subjects, among others.
{{/usCountry}}The CUET-PG will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is also conducting CUET-UG, in July last week. It will be a computer-based exam for which registrations are open from May 19 to June 18. The programmes for which the exam will be conducted include MA in different disciplines, LLM, BEd, MEd, MSc in different subjects, MSW, MPharma, MCA, and postgraduate diplomas in several subjects, among others.
{{/usCountry}}As per the NTA information bulletin, the central universities that are not participating are DU, AMU, Jamia, University of Allahabad, Assam University, Mizoram University, and Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sanskrit University, among others.
“Since the CUET-PG is not mandatory for central universities like CUET-UG, DU has decided not to adopt it this year,” Delhi University registrar Vikas Gupta said.
“The university already conducts its own entrance exam for postgraduate admissions with the help of NTA. We will discuss the proposal regarding the adoption of CUET-PG with our statutory bodies this year. The university will most likely adopt it from next year. We don’t want to rush,” he said.
“Jamia is almost concluding its registration process for postgraduate admissions. It won’t be possible to take any decision regarding CUET-PG at this moment. Also, it is not mandatory to adopt,” Jamia media coordinator Ahmad Azeem said.
Similarly, officials at AMU also said that the registration process for postgraduate admissions is going to get over soon. “Besides, the academic council of the university is yet to make a decision on adopting CUET-PG,” said an official.
According to NTA’s bulletin, 35 central universities, including Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Central University of Punjab, Central University of Haryana, and Central University of Karnataka, have already decided to adopt the CUET-PG. Besides, six state universities and one deemed-to-be university are also participating in CUET-PG, as of now.
The exam will be conducted in English and Hindi and any other language specific to the concerned subject. The exam will be conducted on multiple days in two shifts per day, according to the agency. it will have multiple choice questions and each paper will have 100 questions, each carrying four marks. One mark will be deducted for each wrong answer, the NTA said in its bulletin.