Delhi University: Academic Council approves proposal for PG admission through CUET 

The Delhi University (DU) Academic Council (AC) on Tuesday, November 22 approved the proposal to hold postgraduate admission through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) from the next academic cycle (2023-24). 

The change in the admission pattern of postgraduate programmes was proposed by a ten-member committee formed to “suggest a strategy” for PG admissions from 2023-2024, as stated in a report by PTI. 

Existing system
Under the existing system, 50 per cent of admissions are done directly for students who pursued their bachelor's degrees from the university based on their merit in their qualifying examinations. The remaining 50 per cent of seats are filled based on candidates' ranks in the DU postgraduate entrance test. "The AC has approved to recommend PG admissions through CUET with half of the seats remaining under merit-based admission for students of DU," a council member told PTI.

What has been proposed?
The committee had suggested that the admission to all postgraduate courses will be carried out through a single window mechanism where CUET-PG will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) as is done for other central universities with effect from the academic session 2023-24 for all categories who wish to seek admission in the university.

Separate merit lists will be prepared for the candidates who clear the CUET-PG and those belonging to the other category of candidates who previously used to appear in the postgraduate entrance test. While preparing the merit list, priority will be given to the category of candidates who used to appear in the DU entrance test.

"While preparing the merit list, priority will be defined as follows: The erstwhile category of candidates who used to seek admissions through postgraduate entrance test will comprise the first 50 per cent of the seats and will include the candidates who qualify in this Common University Entrance Test depending upon his/her eligibility for appearing in the test under this category," the committee has recommended, as per the PTI report. The remaining 50 per cent of the seats will be filled by the erstwhile category of candidates who used to seek admission by obtaining an eligible bachelor's degree from DU. 

The University Grants Commission (UGC) introduced the CUET for postgraduate courses earlier this year. A total of 66 universities, including central, state and private universities, had opted for the CUET-PG exam for admissions. Delhi University was among the universities that have opted out of this entrance test and are conducting admissions to the PG courses to continue as per the existing processes.