EMPTY SEATS BUT GREATER DIVERSITY

How has switching to a national exam for admissions impacted central universities across the country?

- Atul Krishna & R Radhika

The mandatory introduction of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for undergraduate programmes in 2022, did not work out well for the Central University of Karnataka. The university, by the end of the admission phase, ended up with fewer students than the preceding year. With students finding it easier to cancel admissions through the common admission platform dozens of seats are vacant in each department.

"The only disadvantage [of CUET] is that students from Delhi, Rajasthan, etc, take admission here but when they get admission back in their state, they cancel admission and go away. So, there is a sharp decline in admission this year. Now it is easy for students to cancel their admission as we have to refund the whole fee if the students cancel ... within the stipulated period," said Basavaraj P Donur, registrar, Central University of Karnataka.

"For all our programmes, all seats were filled in the beginning but since we started our classes, a minimum of seven to eight students in each department cancelled their admission....if we were a JNU, DU, BHU, etc., they wouldn't face this problem. Given an opportunity, any student would go for the big central universities," said Donur. The universities he referred to are the long-established Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi University (DU) and Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

Universities that conducted their own exams or admitted students based on Class 12 marks at the undergraduate level were all directed to adopt CUET a single, centralised exam conducted by the National Testing Agency - for the first-time last year. However, the sweeping changes in the admission process have affected some of the smaller central universities adversely.