Deemed-to-be universities willing to adopt CUET with certain observations – Times of India

Various advantages


Surendra, head of department (HoD), Department of Yoga, Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar, says, “Two advantages of adopting CUET will be pulling in a larger crowd of quality students so there is lesser chance of vacant seats and lesser emphasis on class XII board marks for admission, which do not guarantee a good group of students joining the institute.”

Manju Chhugani, dean, School of Nursing Sciences and Allied Health, Jamia Hamdard (deemed-to-be) University, adds, “When National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) was introduced, it was considered a developmental step to include admissions to Nursing courses through the test. Earlier, with our sole entrance test, we received around two applications per seat, but after including admissions through NEET, this number increased to about five applications per seat.” With such a tried and tested formula, adoption of CUET holds great promise, she adds.

Jamia Hamdard had grappled with merit-based admissions as well but the results had been disappointing. “The batch of students we admitted through this way participated in a Delhi Nursing Council held exam. Of the 60 students who participated, 46 failed. This put the spotlight on the quality of students coming through a merit-based admission process,” adds Chhugani.

Raj Singh, vice-chancellor, JAIN (Deemed-to-be-University), says that a common entrance test will take the burden from students to perform extraordinarily in their board exams. “With numerous education boards in existence within the nation, putting everyone at par by considering their boards exam marks for admission is unfair. With NEP focusing on strengthening aptitude rather than domain knowledge, a common entrance test is the obvious solution.”

Specifications are awaited

PK Shajahan, dean, academic affairs, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), says, “Through our own entrance test, TISS-NET / TISS-BAT, we offer admission to postgraduate (PG) and few UG programmes. Since the exam features general aptitude questions for UG courses, shifting to CUET for UG admissions should not be a problem, as long as we have the possibility of holding round 2 at the institute’s level to check the candidate’s aptitude and interest in the course.”

JAIN University has also decided to adopt CUET from this academic session onward but will be conducting its own entrance test as well. Singh says, “In the initial couple of years, since the trend of CUET is yet to become popular among students for admission to HEIs beyond central universities, we will take admissions through our own test as well. Gradually, as CUET becomes the accepted norm for admission across HEIs, we may make a complete shift.”

Chhugani says that to ensure quality of students remains unhampered, CUET exam should check a student’s inclination towards a particular field, especially one as specialised as Nursing. “The section of the paper devoted to checking a candidate’s domain specific knowledge needs to be aligned with the courses so that institutes get quality students,” she says.