<p>The University Grants Commission's (UGC) decision to conduct a mandatory common entrance test for admission to undergraduate courses offered by Central universities is a welcome step that will help address some ills of the present system. The test, called the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), will be held by the National Testing Agency and will be the basis for admission to all the 45 Central universities. The Class XII Board examination results will only be considered as providing an eligibility criterion but will no longer ensure admission to a course. A similar system has been followed by some Central universities in the past few years. The new system covers all the Central universities and the colleges affiliated with them. The students can write the test in any of the 13 specified languages. This is expected to provide a level-playing field for students who have done their schooling in different languages. </p>.<p>One important advantage of the new testing and admission system is that it will put an end to the bizarre competition among students with high cut-off marks. This had led to absurd situations like the qualifying marks being pegged at 100% for some courses in some universities. Irrational inflation of marks makes the judgement of relative merit difficult. Various education boards have different assessment procedures and this makes the comparison of marks difficult. Students who studied under boards that were conservative in assessment suffered in the admission process. Students also had to write multiple entrance tests for admission to different universities. A single test saves a lot of hassles and expenses for students and their parents.</p>.<p>Some more clarity is needed on the design of the system. Many experts have conceived of a system that will test the students’ knowledge of subjects and their aptitude. The New Education Policy (NEP) has also envisaged such a system. While the merit list made on the basis of the CUET score may reflect the candidates’ domain knowledge, it is not known whether it will reflect their aptitude. There is a view that the performance in schools should not be totally downgraded and there should be a minimum cut-off level to qualify for admission, along with the CUET ranking. There is also the danger that the present tension and rat race revolving around Class XII marks will be transferred to the CUET rankings. It should also be noted that the new entrance system is not the solution to the problem of the paucity of seats in higher education. While the demand for higher education has been growing, opportunities, especially for quality higher education, have not expanded. So the competition among candidates will remain the same and is likely to become acute. Improving the quality of education is the bigger challenge.</p>
<p>The University Grants Commission's (UGC) decision to conduct a mandatory common entrance test for admission to undergraduate courses offered by Central universities is a welcome step that will help address some ills of the present system. The test, called the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), will be held by the National Testing Agency and will be the basis for admission to all the 45 Central universities. The Class XII Board examination results will only be considered as providing an eligibility criterion but will no longer ensure admission to a course. A similar system has been followed by some Central universities in the past few years. The new system covers all the Central universities and the colleges affiliated with them. The students can write the test in any of the 13 specified languages. This is expected to provide a level-playing field for students who have done their schooling in different languages. </p>.<p>One important advantage of the new testing and admission system is that it will put an end to the bizarre competition among students with high cut-off marks. This had led to absurd situations like the qualifying marks being pegged at 100% for some courses in some universities. Irrational inflation of marks makes the judgement of relative merit difficult. Various education boards have different assessment procedures and this makes the comparison of marks difficult. Students who studied under boards that were conservative in assessment suffered in the admission process. Students also had to write multiple entrance tests for admission to different universities. A single test saves a lot of hassles and expenses for students and their parents.</p>.<p>Some more clarity is needed on the design of the system. Many experts have conceived of a system that will test the students’ knowledge of subjects and their aptitude. The New Education Policy (NEP) has also envisaged such a system. While the merit list made on the basis of the CUET score may reflect the candidates’ domain knowledge, it is not known whether it will reflect their aptitude. There is a view that the performance in schools should not be totally downgraded and there should be a minimum cut-off level to qualify for admission, along with the CUET ranking. There is also the danger that the present tension and rat race revolving around Class XII marks will be transferred to the CUET rankings. It should also be noted that the new entrance system is not the solution to the problem of the paucity of seats in higher education. While the demand for higher education has been growing, opportunities, especially for quality higher education, have not expanded. So the competition among candidates will remain the same and is likely to become acute. Improving the quality of education is the bigger challenge.</p>
