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New Delhi, Aug. 10: Nearly 40 central universities have agreed to hold a common entrance test (CET) for admission to under-graduate and post-graduate courses from next year with 40 per cent weightage for marks secured in the qualifying examination.
In a meeting in Chandigarh last week, vice-chancellors of central universities decided to launch a CET to replace separate tests conducted by various universities for admission into UG and PG courses.
The single entrance will have questions to test the general aptitude and subject-specific knowledge of students. About 35 per cent questions will be on general aptitude like language, vocabulary, reasoning and general knowledge while 65 per cent will deal with specific subjects.
There will be separate sections with questions on specific subjects. Students will have to attempt questions from subjects he/she wants to study in university.
“There is a question on credibility of the marks awarded by various boards in view of the heterogeneity in assessment and evaluation system,” UGC chairperson Ved Prakash said.
“The vice-chancellors have decided to have a common entrance with 40 per cent weightage to board marks for admission into UG courses. They have agreed to hold common entrance for PG courses also with same weightage.”
At present, most central universities hold their own entrance tests for UG and PG courses. A few like Delhi University admit students to most of its UG courses based on board marks.
The vice-chancellor of the Central University of Bihar, Janak Pandey, said the single entrance would benefit students as they would not have to take multiple entrance tests for admission.
“Currently, a student has to visit different universities to appear in the entrance tests. By appearing in the CET, a student can get admission into any of the central universities,” he said.
Pandey said the questions in the aptitude section may be uniform for all aspirants irrespective of choice of stream like science or arts or commerce.
Central universities with a special historical character like Aligarh Muslim University or Jamia Millia Islamia, both minority institutions, may be exempt from the proposed common admission test.
The Central University of Kashmir vice-chancellor, Abdul Wahid, said seven central universities had been holding common entrance tests for the last three years. They are Central University of Tamil Nadu, Kashmir, Rajasthan, Kerala, Jharkhand, Bihar and Jammu.
“Our experience has been very good in the last three years. The same test will now be expanded since all central universities, excepting a few, will follow it,” he said.
“The vice-chancellor of Central University of Tamil Nadu, B.P. Sanjay, will suggest modalities of the CET.”
Admission for MPhil and PhD courses will be based on the performance of students in the UGC’s National Eligibility Test and CSIR’s Junior Research Fellowship. The universities will be free to hold their own admission interviews.
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