New Delhi: The Common University Entrance Test has not delayed the academic calendar in central universities, Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar said on Monday. The scale of CUET was huge and some difficulties were faced by students due to technical and geo-climatic reasons and the test was rescheduled in such cases, Sarkar said in a written response to a question in Lok Sabha.
"There is no information that CUET has adversely affected studies and it has resulted in cost escalation of graduation, rather the students were able to apply to more than one university with a single form and fee. This has resulted in saving on the cost and effort needed to secure admission in the universities," the minister said.
Congress leader Deepak Baij had asked Sarkar whether the students this year had to face a delay in admission to central universities, eventually pushing back the commencement of the academic year. He alleged that the delay was caused due to frequent cancellations of CUET.
"The scale of the test was huge and some difficulties were faced by the students due to technical and geo-climatic reasons and the test was rescheduled in such cases. However, the overall process was managed successfully. In University of Delhi, the classes this year started earlier than last year," Sarkar said.
He informed that a committee of experts comprising professors of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and central universities has been constituted to suggest improvements. The National Testing Agency (NTA) conducted the debut edition of CUET for approximately 14,90,293 candidates. The candidates applied for 54,555 unique combinations of subjects across 90 universities.
CUET-UG began in July and was marred by glitches prompting the NTA to cancel the exam at multiple centres. While several students were informed about the cancellation a night before the exam, many of them were turned away from centres. With 14.9 lakh registrations, CUET, the common gateway for undergraduate admissions in all central universities, is now the second biggest entrance exam in the country, surpassing JEE-Main's average registration of 9 lakh.
NEET-UG is the biggest entrance test in India with an average of 18 lakh registrations. While JEE-Mains is a Computer-Based Test (CBT) conducted twice a year, NEET is conducted in pen and paper mode.
