CUET becomes second biggest entrance exam in India; 9.14 lakh registrations, 87 universities on board – Times of India

NEW DELHI: In its debut year, with 9,14,103 registrations the Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET-UG) 2022 is officially the second biggest entrance exam in India. A total of 87 universities and their affiliated colleges are participating in the first edition of the test for their undergraduate admissions from for the 2022-23 academic session. Female candidates comprise 44.2% of total aspirants, while category-wise nearly 47% of the candidates are from unreserved category. The registration process came to an end on Sunday evening.

NEET-UG with around 16 lakh average registration and JEE (Main) with around 8.6 lakh registration used to be the biggest higher education entrance exam in India. JEE (Main) comprises two papers (1 for BE/ BTech and 2 for BArch/ B Planning) and the cumulative (including candidates appearing in both the papers) registration for the exam averages around 9.2 lakh. With 9,13,540 unique registration CUET has surpassed JEE (Main) in terms of registration.

CUET-UG offers each candidate to appear in as many as nine subjects, a common platform to apply in any of the participating institutions and multiple courses. The cumulative university-wise application count is 47.69 lakh with a candidate on average opting for five universities.

As per the application trend, exclusively accessed by the TOI, Delhi University leads the pack with over 6 lakh applications, followed by Banaras Hindu University (3.9 lakh) and University of Allahabad (2.3 lakh). There are nine universities which received over one lakh applications including Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia (1,22,478). Some other popular universities which has received high number of,000 applications include Central University of Haryana (92,588), Mahatma Gandhi Central University (81,068), Central University of Karnataka (80,402) Visva-Bharati University (79,179), North-Eastern Hill University (68,998), Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (65,464), and University of Hyderabad (56,231). A total of 31 universities received over 50,000 applications. Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi which is predominantly a postgraduate university too has received 56,620.

Category-wise, following the unreserved is OBC candidates comprising 31.6% of the total applicants, followed by SC category with 10.3%. A total of 4.6% candidates have applied under the economically weaker section category.

State-wise Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Bihar are the top three in number of applications. However, some big numbers are also coming from states with comparatively smaller populations. For example, 15,122 applications from states like Arunachal Pradesh whose population is around 15.5 lakh and 15,601 applications from Meghalaya whose population is around 33 lakh. 58,953 applications have come from Haryana which is ranked 18th among states in population.

“It is a good indication that even students from remote areas are seeing this as an opportunity, which is a positive development. They don’t have to depend any more on Board exam marks and since CUET syllabus is of Class XII standard aspirants will be at home while appearing for the test. I see CUET becoming more popular in the coming years as more universities, including state and private universities, come on board and also because it will be conducted twice in a year,” said M Jagadesh Kumar, chairperson, University Grants Commission.

Candidates are allowed to choose from 13 languages as medium for the test and English tops the list with over 6.9 lakh, followed by Hindi with around 2 lakh and Bengali with 7,817.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) will open the correction window from May 25 and will continue till the end of the month. This editing facility is confined to “Tests” opted and does not extend to cover other fields. Candidates can also select more Universities/PIs or more courses.