India: Universities will not consider CBSE Class XII board marks, common entrance test for all

Central universities in India will admit students to undergraduate courses on the basis of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and not class XII marks from academic year 2022-23, said the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The CUET for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate courses, to be conducted by the National Test Agency, will be in the first week of July. The test will be based on the class XII syllabus of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

“Admissions to all undergraduate programmes in all the centrally funded universities and their affiliated colleges will be done solely on the basis of the CUET score from the 2022-23 session,” said M. Jagadesh Kumar, chairperson, UGC. “For postgraduate programmes, many universities are also willing to use the CUET score. We hope that all central universities will ultimately use CUET for their postgraduate admissions also.”

Kumar said that this is not something new. “In all IIT admissions we use joint entrance examination (JEE) scores primarily because of the diversity of the boards and the different kinds of evaluations,” he pointed out. “The same is true of university admissions. That is why we are giving one standard NCERT syllabus, so everybody can prepare and have a common reference ground, compete and then get admission.”

The move will also reduce the financial burden on parents as students will not have to sit for multiple tests for admissions.

CUET will, however, not affect the admission policies of central universities. “If any university reserves a certain percentage for local students or internal students, it will continue to do that,” said Kumar. “The only difference is that these students will also have to come through CUET like students to be admitted on general seats. The reservation policies and ordinances of the universities will remain unchanged.”