Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Wednesday started its registration process but unlike most central universities, AMU will not adopt the Common University Entrance Test (CUET UG 2023) for all undergraduate programmes. This comes in direct contrast to the advisory issued by the UGC. UGC chief M Jagadesh Kumar told The Indian Express that it is “mandatory for all central universities to adopt CUET for all undergraduate programmes”. He said all central university representatives were instructed about this in a video meeting he had conducted on February 13. Asked why the university is not following the UGC's directive, an AMU representative claimed that they have not received any specific instruction from the Commission and would therefore continue with the pattern adopted by the university last year. "For now, we have decided to go with these select programmes for CUET," Prof Shafey Kidwai of AMU said. The UGC chief, however, said the Commission has reached out to all registered universities and asked them to implement CUET. “CUET is for the betterment of children, and if any varsity is not adopting it, then we will take that up on a case-by-case approach and request all universities to adopt CUET completely," Kumar said. According to the official notification released by the university, CUET score will be adopted for the programmes BSc (Hons) Community Science, BA (Hons/Research) — Faculty of Arts, BA (Hons/Research) — Faculty of Social Sciences, BVoc — Production Technology, BVoc — Polymer and Coating Technology, and BVoc — Fashion Design & Garment Technology. In 2022, too, AMU had opted for CUET in select programmes.
