With 10 lakh likely aspirants, CUET may beat JEE(M) in entrance test race

NEW DELHI: At nearly 7.4 lakh unique completed registrations and with another 5.1 lakh candidates who have registered but are yet to make the online payment to complete the process, the Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate 2022 (CUET-UG) is set to become one of the biggest entrance tests of the country surpassing the average registration of around 9.1 lakh for JEE (Main). NEET-UG's average registration for the past three years has been around 16 lakh.
The cumulative university-wise application count is closing towards 35 lakh. CUET-UG offers a common window to apply to multiple universities and courses. As per the application trend, a candidate on average has opted for five universities. NTA expects this to cross 50 lakh in the next 10 days.
Among the 84 universities on board, Delhi University (DU) as on date has received close to five lakh applications for its undergraduate programmes as part of the CUET-UG registration process. The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has attracted 3.1 lakh applications, while University of Allahabad has so far received nearly 1.9 lakh applications.
Three of the central universities have received over a lakh applications, while nine have received over 50,000 applications. There are 11 state and eight deemed universities who are going to enrol students on the basis of the CUET-UG 2022 score this year. While Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi, has received over a lakh applications so far, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow, has received over 70,000 applications. There are 18 private universities and of these six have got over 40,000 applications so far.

As per the latest application trend exclusively accessed by the TOI, for the domain-specific papers over 5.9 lakh candidates have registered for the English paper, followed by 2.1 lakh for Hindi. Among the non-language papers Chemistry has highest takers (2,79,869), followed by Mathematics (2,68,752), and Physics (2,58,211).
In the non-science subjects Economics/Business Economics leads with 1.5 lakh aspirants, followed by Business Studies (1,37,023), Accountancy/Book Keeping (1,22,497) and History (1,22,139). Nearly 71% (5.2 lakh) of the registered candidates are also sitting for the non-mandatory General Test.



In 2020, in case an aspirant applied for one course in DU, Visva-Bharati, BHU, Jamia Millia Islamia, and Dr BR Ambedkar University the total cost of applications would have been Rs 2,940. Cut to 2022 and CUET, an unreserved category candidate can apply to all the above and more for Rs 650 in case he/she is appearing for the test in India.

"The biggest benefit of the CUET-UG at this point is that aspirants can choose multiple universities and courses through a single window and also take the exam close to home. While on an average a candidate so far has opted for five universities, there are instances where aspirants have opted for 10 universities. Till last year that candidate would have spent anything between Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000 for the online applications to the individual institutions. He/ she may also need to travel and appear for different sets of entrances," said Vineet Joshi, director general, National Testing Agency.

Among the private universities, Jagannath University, Haryana has the largest number of applications (47,028), followed by BML Munjal University, Haryana (46,106) and Bennett University, Greater Noida (45,152).