The Ministry of Education has announced that central universities in states in North East India will be exempt from the compulsion of using the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) scores for admission in undergraduate studies as mandated by the University Grants Commission (UGC). In addition to states in the North East, Uttarakhand's HNB Garhwal University has also been exempt from the CUET this year, reported The Indian Express. This was conveyed to the concerned universities via a letter by the Ministry.

The Ministry said that the decision was made after taking into consideration the "operational difficulties" in these states, owing to challenges posed by the natural geography of the region, and the issues in connectivity.  This means that admission to UG courses in these universities, and all colleges affiliated to these universities, will be conducted as per the methods that these universities followed before this year. 

Earlier this week, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had granted exemption to the central university in Meghalaya, the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), due to similar issues of geographical challenges and connectivity. This decision by the Minister came after a meeting with the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Conrad K Sangma, met Pradhan with this request on April 25. 

The CUET for admissions into UG courses will be conducted by the National Testing Agency on July 11. It will be mandatory for all central universities to use the CUET scores for admissions into UG courses this year. Many private and state universities have also signed up for the same. On May 19, UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar announced the opening of the application window for CUET for post graduation (PG) courses. The test will be conducted in the third week of July.