New Delhi, 01, December, 2021:The University Grants Commission (UGC) has announced that a common entrance test (CET) may be conducted for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in central universities. This test will be overseen by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and will begin from the next academic year (2022-2023).ย
The higher education body also mentioned that admission into PhD courses will be done based on a candidateโs national eligibility test (NET) score. By implementing the CET, the UGC aims to provide a uniform platform for all students.
Note: NTA will serve as an autonomous testing organisation to offer high-quality common aptitude tests and specialised common subject examinations in sciences, humanities, languages, arts, and vocational subjects in higher education institutions.
CET 2022 – Expected Guidelines
As per the announcement, UGC has come up with the following guidelines:
- All central universities are advised to take appropriate measures for the CET from the academic session 2022-2023.
- The tests would be conducted in a minimum of 13 languages – English, Hindi, Gujarati, Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
- The CET may also be adopted by state, private, and deemed to be universities, as per their choice.ย
CET 2022 – Pattern
CET will have two components – an aptitude test and a subject-specific test. While the aptitude part will consist of questions on reading comprehension, verbal ability, logical & analytical reasoning, and general awareness, the second part will be subject-specific.ย
Note:ย
- UGC prepared a seven-member committee in 2020 to recommend modalities for Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET) that held several rounds of discussion and submitted its findings in December. The names of the people involved in the committee have been kept anonymous.
- The Ministry of Education had earlier announced that admissions to universities will be based on a common entrance test from the 2021 academic session, but the plan could not take off due to challenges posed by COVID-19.
