Ambedkar University to adopt common entrance test for UG admissions this year

AUD is a state university under the Delhi government which reserves 85% seats for students from the NCT of Delhi. Unlike central universities, it is not mandatory for state universities to adopt CUET. “We will be one of the first state universities to conduct CUET for UG admissions. During Covid, we had no option but to hold entrances and we realised that it brought in students with merit. We found that CUET suits our requirements, and when the whole country is evolving through the National Education Policy, why should we not be part of the change?” Lather said at a press conference Thursday.

She said CUET will also be applicable for all supernumerary seats, except for foreign students, and that adopting it will not affect reservation in any way. Asked if there had been deliberations with the Delhi government, Lather said, “We have autonomy on such administrative decisions. We don’t need to go to the Delhi government on internal matters.”

Dean Planning, Kartik Dave, said the university was taking the decision to hold admissions under CUET in order to give a level playing field to students of Delhi government schools.

AUD officials said applicants would need to register first on the National Testing Agency website which is conducting the exam. Once the scores are in, they would be required to register on the AUD website as well, where an application fee would be charged. A merit list would then be prepared and admissions held accordingly.

“The application fee last year was around Rs 390 for UG and Rs 510 for PG. This will increase by around 10% this year,” said Dean Students’ Services Suresh Babu. Lather said this was being done as the university did not raise its fee during the pandemic.

Like DU, AUD also said there would be three sections of CUET 2022 in which the first section is divided into two parts. It consists of 13 languages in the first part and 20 languages in the second part. The second section would contain 27 domain-specific topics, and the third section would be based on general knowledge.

As for eligibility criteria, the V-C said most courses would require 50% marks in the board exams, apart from the CUET score which will be calculated based on the best performance of students in the papers they appear for. There is an exception for BVoc courses, for which only pass marks are the criteria in terms of school marks.

“Merit will be based on the highest score that a candidate gets by considering all the combinations of subjects in which s(he) appears in the CUET. In other words, best combination to benefit the candidate will be done. There will be no disadvantage on changing streams,” said Dave.

For admissions in BA (Hons) English and Maths, applicants also need to have scored a minimum of 65% in these subjects in their class 12 exams, apart from other eligibility criteria. For admissions to BA (Hons) in Hindi, English and Maths, applicants will necessarily need to give CUET in the given subjects.

Registrar Nitin Malik said to help students, the university will set up a help desk, have a chatbox on the website, and students will also be provided with FAQs. AUD will also hold ‘Open House’ sessions to address students’ queries.