Stretching Last Phase of CUET UG for Students of J-K, Violence-hit Manipur, Jharkhand Led to Delay in Exam, Results | EXCLUSIVE – News18

The long schedule for conducting the Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET-UG) 2023 in three states — Jammu and Kashmir, strife-torn Manipur and Jharkhand — which saw the highest number of candidates applying for the test, in turn, led to a shortage of test centres there that has delayed the overall result of the second edition of the country’s second-largest entrance exam, a top official said.

The exam schedule was first announced to be held from May 21 to June 6 with June 7 and 8 as buffer days. While the results were slated to be out before June-end. However, in order to allocate nearby centres to students from these states, the schedule had to be extended by around two weeks with the last phase finally ending on June 23. The results are now expected to be announced before July 15.

“The last phase had to be stretched only because of a few thousand students in J&K, Manipur and Jharkhand. In Manipur, many students were displaced because of the violence that took place, so we called each and every student who had applied to make sure they get to write the exam wherever they are placed. For those still in Manipur, we arranged for centres in neighbouring states,” Prof M Jagadesh Kumar, chairperson, University Grants Commission (UGC) said.

In J&K also, there were just 12-13 test centres that could be identified for reasons of internet compatibility and other infrastructure. Hence, for thousands of students taking the exam, the number of days it was conducted over had to be extended. Similarly, in Jharkhand too, the number of candidates taking the exam was higher while centres were limited, said Kumar.

Even as the overall number of applications for the second edition of CUET-UG was an unprecedented 14.99 lakh, J&K, Jharkhand and the whole of Northeast together comprised the highest number of applications for the exam, which is a common test conducted for entry to undergraduate courses across central universities in the country. At least, 17.74 per cent of all the students who had applied for the exam were from J&K and Jharkhand alone.

According to NTA data, while 87,309 students applied from J&K this year as compared to 13,021 last time, a total of 1,78,630 applications came in from Jharkhand, the count for which last year stood at 26,497. The number of applications from J&K and Jharkhand this time went up by 6.7 times compared to last year, making it a challenge for the NTA to identify enough exam centres. The shortage of centres prompted the agency to cancel the first phase of exam schedule in J&K.

Initially, the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the exam, had allotted centres to candidates in these places outside their respective states. For instance, for J&K, the test centre allotted to many students was in Chandigarh, but it was later changed after a number of requests started pouring in on social media platforms as well as to the NTA from candidates all over to change the location of the exam centre to within the state, he added.

“The NTA re-allotted test centres and it was ensured that it is within state limits and that nobody had to travel far away, which delayed the process. We faced this challenge of shortage of centres in these states so we had to schedule a smaller number of students for the test on a particular day at the available centre, which on average would be around 3000-4000 students writing the exam on any given day,” he said.

While nearly 15 lakh students had applied for CUET UG this year, because of multiple paper combinations, it was actually 47 lakh candidates for whom the NTA had to arrange to write the exam, as one candidate would be appearing for multiple exams in different phases. Of these, at least 65 per cent sat for the exam, added Kumar.