Breather for students: UGC plans to conduct one entrance test for NEET, JEE

Students appearing for multiple entrance exams may get a breather as higher education regulator University Grants Commission (UGC) is planning to bring engineering and medical entrance examinations in the country under one umbrella of the Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET-UG). 

According to an article in The Times of India, under the new proposal, the students can just appear for one entrance test, instead of individually writing tests for Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The students can then opt for their desired stream based on the results.  

UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar said the main idea is to have one exam in place of three, which all are based on the same knowledge base. He added that the students will get a chance to get admission to different fields.  

Kumar added that the main idea behind the proposal is to relieve students from the additional pressure of appearing in different entrance tests. Besides, one exam can test their knowledge of the subjects in one go. Therefore, under the new plan, students who are keen on taking up engineering and medical studies will be assessed on the subjects that are required, i.e. Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Biology.  

Students who do not want to do so will get opportunities for admission in other courses offered under CUET-UG. 

The current setup 

The CUET, which stands for Central Universities Common Entrance Test, is now the second-biggest entrance exam in India with 14.9 lakh registrations. The exam, which is a national-level exam for admission to undergraduate, postgraduate, and research programmes courses, was introduced by the University Grants Commission for admission in various central universities and colleges. Besides central varsities, 12 state universities, 11 deemed universities, and 19 private universities are part on the first edition of CUET-UG for admissions for the 2022-23 session. 

JEE and NEET  

This year, about 43 lakh students have appeared in the three main entrance examinations - Joint Entrance Test (main), National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Graduation (medical entrance), and CUET-UG. As per the rules, students who want to take engineering appear for JEE Mains and take up tests on Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry. Students keen on choosing NEET-UG have to take up Biology instead of Mathematics. Here Physics and Chemistry have to be taken separately. These topics are also part of CUET-UG’s 61 domain topics.