State universities in West Bengal to not use CUET for admission to UG courses

The state universities in West Bengal have not taken the Common Universities Entrance Test (CUET) UG model for admission to undergraduate courses, authorities informed on Sunday, September 18.

Vice-Chancellor of Diamond Harbour Women’s University Soma Bandyopadhyay told the PTI, “We have conducted the entrance test as directed by the state higher education department. Being a state university, we devise the admission criteria going by the directives of the state higher education department. There is no way we can adopt the CUET method or prepare any new merit list," she said.

Jadavpur University has already completed its own entrance tests for UG courses stated the Teachers' Association spokesperson Partha Pratim Roy of the university.

"No way we can adapt the CUET path for an institution like Jadavpur University which follows rigorous high-level admission procedure. All our disciplines — Science, Arts and Engineering — maintain high academic standards due to this admission process by JU. The uniform CUET route is not applicable for JU," he said.

Another private university St Xavier's also conducted their own entrance examinations and the Vice-Chancellor Father Felix Raj said: "We are not going by the CUET route.”

The officials of the Presidency University, Vidyasagar University, Bardhaman University, MAKAUT, North Bengal University and the West Bengal University of Technology also have taken to their own admission process and have said that they will not be adhering to the CUET UG merit list.

A Visva-Bharati University spokesperson said the Central university, having UG courses in different disciplines, has adopted the CUET route.

"The CUET eligibility criteria will be followed both for students of Patha Bhavan and Siksha Satra (higher secondary level educational units run by Visva Bharati) and students from outside. But there will be a little bit lowering of cut-off mark for internal students those having studied here up to 12th level," the spokesperson said.

"We oppose the attempt to thrust one uniform admission test criteria on all higher education institutions across the country.  This does not take into account the academic autonomy issue of institutions like the Presidency,” said the spokesperson of Presidency University Students Union, Debnil Paul.

"The merit lists will be prepared by participating universities who will decide about their individual counselling on the basis of CUET-UG score card," said Sadhana Parashar, Senior Director (Exams), NTA.