CUET UG guidelines, new help centres, and more — here’s what happened this week

“UGC has asked all the Central Universities to use CUET scores for admissions to all the courses. However, this has been observed that Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has opted to participate in CUET-2023 for a limited number of programmes/courses, as was done last year. Please note that all the Central Universities, including AMU, are required to participate for all UG programmes in CUET 2023 to provide equal opportunities to aspiring candidates, which is in the student’s best interests,” the letter stated.

UGC Chief, M Jagadesh Kumar, has however said that CUET is compulsory for all central universities. “From the 2023 academic session onwards, all the central universities must use CUET scores in all the UG course admissions. Even if there are reservations for a particular category of students, such as local students in a central university, they should still use CUET scores only for all categories,” Kumar told indianexpress.com.

Private universities hesitant about CUET

BML Munjal University, GD Goenka University, Lovely Professional University (LPU), Galgotias University, SRM University and many more have adopted CUET 2023 this time.

However, not all varsities are sure about the UGC-introduced entrance test, given the history of technical glitches and a delay in the admission process.

The UGC Chief, M Jagadesh Kumar, has said there will be no delay in admissions this year. “This year the CUET UG will take place on 21- 31 May and results will be announced in June. The admission process can start in July’s first week and classes can start no later than August 1. Therefore, there should be no delay in the admission process,” he said. “We are also working right from the beginning to make sure that the test centres are chosen with suitable infrastructure so that the CUET-UG will be conducted smoothly.”

BHU admissions 2023

The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) will begin the registration process for admission to undergraduate (UG), and postgraduate (PG) courses in the last week of May 2023. Candidates have to appear in the Common University Entrance Test (CUET UG 2023) to apply for BHU admission 2023. Candidates can apply for CUET 2023 registration from the official website of CUET — cuet.samarth.ac.in.

“Candidates will be selected for admission in such courses in order of merit on the basis of marks secured in the entrance test conducted by the NTA provided he/she fulfills the minimum eligibility criteria and minimum qualifying marks in the test,” the BHU said.

CUET allowed for foreign, NRI, OCI candidates

The NTA has decided to allow CUET for NRI and OCI candidates. In the online application form of CUET (UG) 2023, candidates need to select their nationality in the dropdown as either Indian, OCI, NRI or foreign. Moreover, to facilitate the foreign, OCI and NRI candidates, CUET (UG) 2023 will also be conducted in 24 cities outside India as per details given on the official website (cuet.samarth.ac.in).

“CUET-UG is not compulsory for admission to UG programmes in Indian universities for candidates having a foreign passport. Each university may have its own transparent admission process for admitting foreign students. However, if some foreign students wish to write CUET-UG in the 24 test centres in foreign countries, they can write. However, it is up to the university to use either CUET-UG score or other means,” Kumar told indianexpress.com.

Notice for Tamil Nadu students

The NTA has clarified that the candidates who cleared their class 10 exams from the Tamil Nadu board will not have to fill in their marks now, as they were only awarded with a ‘pass’ comment due to the Covid pandemic. The NTA said that they had received several complaints from Tamil Nadu students who informed the NTA that due to the Covid outbreak, no examinations were conducted for 2021 batch of class 10, because of which no marks were given in the marksheet and ‘pass’ is printed in all subjects with a disclaimer.

New exam help centres

To ensure smooth conduction of CUET UG 2023, the NTA has launched examination help centres across the country. The locations and details of these centres are available on the official CUET UG website — cuet.samarth.ac.in.

There are 24 centres across the country. Each centre will have one dedicated technical person who will be the in-charge and will help the applicants in filling their forms. The service is free of cost, all students need to do is go to the help centres with their required documents and fill the form.