The CUET mandate warrants cautious implementation 

News: Recently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has made it mandatory for the Central Universities to take admission in their undergraduate programmes on the basis and merit of scores in the Central University Entrance Test (CUET) from this year. 

What is the situation wrt admission tests in India? 

The institutions of national importance (INIs), i.e., the IITs, the IIIT, the NITs, and the IIM, already admit students on the basis of a single common entrance examination.  

All the medical institutions take admission on the basis of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (undergraduate), or NEET.  

12 central universities have been admitting students on the basis of a single common entrance test. 

However, most central universities admit students on the basis of their own entrance tests which conducted programme by programme. The Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research is also allowed to follow a different approach for taking admission.  

What are the concerns associated with CUET? 

It goes against the principle of academic autonomy. In addition, the formalisation, uniformity, and standardisation of the education will pull down quality of education to the lowest common denominator.  

There are concerns over the autonomy, competence, credibility and expertise of the NTA which will conduct the test. For example, leakage of national level tests. 

The entrance tests may undermine the importance of board examinations. It can distract students from their studies in schools.  

It may pose a huge disadvantage to an overwhelmingly large number of students from the State Boards (not the Central Board of Secondary Examination). 

In fact, the countries in which the World-class universities are situated do not insist on admitting students based on a quantitative score of a common test. They grant freedom to evolve holistic criteria for admission or in other words they respect the idea of academic autonomy.  

The higher education is in the concurrent list. Therefore, the States must be taken into confidence on such matters. In fact, the centrally-funded technical educational institutions, central universities, and deemed universities enrol a mere 5.08% of students. The remainder, 94.92%, are enrolled by the state universities, and their colleges (publicly funded or self-financed). 

Way Forward 

There has to be discussion, deliberation and consultation with all the stakeholders. It will develop the best method for admission in the higher educational institutions. 

Finally, The Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), as prescribed by the NEP 2020, needs to be established soon. It includes the General Education Council (GEC) which is a consultative mechanism.

Source: The post is based on an article “The CUET mandate warrants cautious implementation” published in The Hindu on 6th Apr 22.