The Common University Entrance Test (CUET)-UG will be conducted in three shifts in a day this year instead of two. CUET-UG is the common gateway for admission in to undergraduate courses, in central universities across the country. The second edition of CUET-UG is scheduled from May 21 to 31.
In March last year, UGC had announced that admissions to undergraduate courses in all central universities will be conducted through a common entrance test and not on the basis of class 12 marks. This year CUET-UG received over 11.5 lakh registrations and the deadline for registrations has been extended to March 30, 2023. The authorities are expecting that the total applications count would exceed last year’s numbers. CUET-UG 2022 witnessed a total of 14.9 lakh registrations which surpassed JEE-Main’s average registration of nine lakh and became the second biggest entrance exam in the country.
In its first edition in 2022, the NTA had to cancel the CUET-UG exam at multiple centres as it was marred by glitches. Though the students were informed of the cancellation the night before it created confusion and a lot of students were forced to be turned away when they reached examination centres. UGC is organizing for extra computers and extra centres as plan B so that in case there are any glitches, the candidates can be shifted there and the exam for a particular shift will not be cancelled.
As a part of their ground work and preparation, UGC has categorized the centres into three categories – A, B and C. Centres that faced problems last year are categorized as “C” and they will not be utilized this year. Centres that need more handholding and where more ground work and infrastructure are required are categorized as “B”. Category “A” centres are those that worked fine and do not need any further work on them.
