The University Grants Commission's decision this week to make the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) compulsory for admissions into undergraduate programmes, while not entirely unexpected, does raise the need for clarifications and analysis in the context of the various stakeholders of the Indian higher education system. Right from the need for such a centralised exam, to the impact it will have on the students and the universities, and the challenges that it both surpasses and creates, everything is up for discussion with regards to this exam, which the UGC has said is in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) and its aim of multi-disciplinary education for students.
One Nation One Exam and all that jazz
Vice-Chancellor of The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Prof E Suresh Kumar, uses the same phrase that Chairman of the UGC M Jagadesh Kumar used when he made the announcement — "student-friendly". "If I am a student applying for EFLU, I will surely be applying to DU, JNU and other central universities too, which means, I need to apply ten times and appear for exams ten times. So, indeed, CUET is very convenient for students," says the VC of the Hyderabad-based central university. He shares that as many as 15,000 aspirants apply to EFLU every year.
Delhi University is one of the prime central varsities in the country, making news each year for impossibly high cut-off marks in the Class XII Boards for admissions into its colleges. With the UGC now declaring that the Class XII marks will not be part of the deciding factor with the CUET scores taking precedence instead, how does this impact DU?
The DU Teachers' Association, for one, thinks that the "undue" competition between various boards led to the necessity of a different module of admissions into the varsity. "Certain boards have awarded their students extremely high marks and, therefore, the merit-based system has become a sort of causality in the DU system. For DU, all boards are equal and we have not rationalised the marks submitted by the boards. Students from all parts of India need to be able to get a chance to study in the university. That is defeated because only one state, one discipline or one college is capturing all the seats," says the President of the DUTA, Prof AK Bhagi.
Coaching institutes and cutthroat competition
However, the CUET is not an ideal solution to this problem, he believes. "Competition will always exist for admission in central universities. That doesn't mean we mindlessly choose a criterion for admission that mushrooms private coaching institutions. In that case, people coming from economically disadvantaged classes will stand to lose. Instead, a discussion among parents, students, academicians and researchers and other stakeholders is required to establish a comprehensive policy on admission through which we can minimise undue competition among the boards that are awarding marks now," he tells Edexlive.
In fact, the fear of coaching institutes cashing in on this latest addition to the list of high profile entrance tests in India such as NEET and JEE is persistent. However, EFLU's VC doesn't necessarily agree. "The number of aspirants applying to JEE and NEET is huge, entrance exams for UG courses won't offer that much scope for coaching institutes," he reasons. The VC also has an appeal to make to state universities. "I appeal to them and other universities to make the most of this opportunity and embrace CUET. This will certainly have long-term benefits for students," he says.
Vice-Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Syed Ainul Hasan recollects the time when he was a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the same time when M Jagadesh Kumar was the VC there. "He had successfully ensured that the NTA executed the common entrance test for JNU. It was a very successful endeavour. Nothing wrong if the same policy is adopted across universities as well," shares the VC.
He allays the apprehensions of universities about letting another body conduct their entrance exams by drawing parallels with similar systems that exist in other countries, such as the United States' Scholastic Assessment Test (SATs). "Moreover, having some common elements such as entrance exams makes other things like credit transfers easier," says the VC, who is also a Persian scholar and a well-known poet. He also mentions that they are waiting for the dust to clear so that they can gain more clarity.
Painting all with the same brush
With the CUET is being made compulsory only for the undergraduate courses this year, Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi doesn't quite get directly impacted by it as of now, since only the School of Languages offers UG programmes.
However, the JNU Teachers' Association has also been vocal about the risk that CUET poses to the unique nature of courses offered at the central university. "Principally, it would be impossible to get students of the kind that fulfil the needs of some of our unique, interdisciplinary centres, such as that for Law and Governance and the North-East Studies centre. I don't know how it will fit into the larger framework. It will obviously hamper the individual direction in which different universities have evolved over a period of time," shares Prof Sucharita Sen, Secretary of the JNUTA.
The UGC has also said that there will be no centralised counselling to allot seats for the students this year. While the UGC Chairman tells Edexlive that this is another move in the "student-friendly" direction by providing students with the choice to apply for as many universities as they wish, what of the logistics of such an approach?
Prof Bhagi believes that a centralised, online structure for admission and counselling would have been beneficial to both the varsity and the students. "The current admission process at DU lingers on for months. It disadvantages parents and students who cannot stay in Delhi for the duration of admission. Some system of online and centralised counselling will benefit these students," he shares.
Days of Board exams terror now in the past?
The pandemic has ushered in innumerable changes to the way students access and participate in education in the last two years. With this arguably huge transition, their radars will have to be adjusted once again. Class XII student J Sai Manaswi doesn't agree that CUET is necessarily as student-friendly as they are making it out to be. "I know friends who have been preparing for the entrance exam of Delhi University for three years. Now they are wondering what's the point of Boards?" she questions.
Pointing to the fact that Board exams are coming up in a month, she calls CUET "very sudden" and "overwhelming". "All our life we've been told Boards are very important, what will happen now? They should have at least informed a year in advance," says the student of Tapasya College of Commerce and Management in Secunderabad.
Sai Sri Sarvani Kanda, Class XII, Glendale Academy International School in Hyderabad, commends the UGC's aim to make the admission process more student-friendly and accessible and calls it a "noble one", but she doesn't think that an extra entrance exam is the best approach.
"Class XII Board exams are regarded as one of the most important examinations of a student's life and it is not fair to give it absolutely no weightage in the admissions process. Further, an additional entrance exam will just pave way for coaching institutes to exploit students and charge exorbitantly high fees for training them as per the CUET pattern, this is the case with JEE, NEET, CLAT and so on," she shares though she does believe standardised exams prevent disparities that Board results across the states have. Kanda also shares how students will have to prepare for both Boards and CUET now, though basing the CUET on the Class XII syllabus makes it more accessible to students.
The Guinea Pig Batch?
But another student of Class XII, Patti Sai Praneeth, is not disappointed. "I've never believed in the Boards and now, we don't have to worry about them," he says. He goes on to explain how he has taken the combination MEC (Math, Economics, Commerce) for his Plus Two and has discovered that he is not very good at Math. "This might really hurt my overall prospects and interest when it comes to Boards marks, but with CUET, I can think of pursuing Commerce or Arts without much worry," says the student of Little Flower Junior College, Hyderabad.
Anshika Aggarwal, a Class XII student from Delhi Public School, Hyderabad, concedes that one common exam is helpful, but she also recognises the fact that if students don't perform well in CUET, all their prospects of gaining admissions in central universities will be ruined. She also says that it would have been helpful if they would have made the announcement earlier.
"It's not particularly fun being the guinea pig batch, especially when a lot of the changes the CBSE is putting forth this year feel more like a performative attempt at appearing progressive, while in reality, helping no one and just making things more difficult for most students. But this measure seems like one of their better ones and might actually make the bridge between college and school easier," she says.
