Common Entrance Exam for engineering admissions

1467 Shri Narayana Koragappa

Will the Minister of Education be pleased to state:

(a) whether it is a fact that discussion was held on conducting a single entrance exam for all engineering colleges in the recently held IIT Council meeting;

(b) if so, details thereof and reasons therefor;

(c) whether it is a fact that some of the IITs opposed common entrance test for engineering admissions; and

(d) if so, the reasons therefor?

(a to d): National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 envisages for most universities to use a common entrance exam across the country – rather than having hundreds of universities each devising their own  entrance exams – thereby drastically reducing the burden on students, universities and colleges, and the entire education system. In line with NEP 2020 vision, desirability of reducing the number of entrance tests being conducted in the country has also been discussed in the recently held IIT Council meeting.

Government has taken numerous initiatives in this direction such as conducting Common University Entrance Test (CUET) which provides a single window opportunity to students seeking admission in any of the Central Universities (CUs) or other participating organizations (including State Universities, Deemed and Private Universities) across the Country especially those from rural and other remote areas. Candidates could choose to appear in CUET in any of the 13 languages viz. Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Odia,

 

Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. 250 Central, State, and other participating universities / Institutions / Organizations agreed to give admission on the basis of CUET (UG) 2023.

Further, JEE mains exam is also being held in 13 languages (Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu) for admission to Undergraduate Engineering Programs (B.E/B.Tech.) at NITs, IIITs, other Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs), and many Institutions/Universities funded/recognized by participating State Governments.

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