Std XII students opting degree should appear for the CUET

State to implement centre’s education policy for admissions, says want to create level-playing field

MUMBAI: To bring about uniformity in degree college admissions, the state higher and technical education department had set up a committee to implement National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in Maharashtra.

The committee has proposed that admission to undergraduate non-professional courses – BA,

BSc and BCom – in state universities should be done via the Common University Entrance Test (CUET). The CUET-UG, in line with NEP 2020, makes its score a mandatory yardstick to get admission in around 90 universities, including 44 central universities.

The committee appointed for ‘structure and curriculum of four year and dual multidisciplinary degree programme, with multiple entry and exit options for implementation, in its report, states, “A single examination will enable the candidates to cover a wide outreach and be part of the admission process to various central as well as participating state universities. State universities may utilise normalized scores and conduct their individual counselling on the bases of the scorecard of CUET provided by the NTA.”

The report further adds, “Based on normalized scores, the merit list will be prepared by participating universities for admission to various UG programmes. The state level mechanism can be thought of by government as additional supporting system for admission to multidisciplinary four-year degree and five-year integrated PG programme.”

An official from department said, “The admission process can be done by the state Common Entrance Test cell that is already involved in conducting entrance test for admission to various UG and post graduate professional courses across state colleges and universities.”

This committee is among the four that was appointed in April 2022 to set up a roadmap for the implementation of NEP based on suggestions by 18-member task force chaired by eminent scientist Raghunath Mashelkar.

Minister Chandrakant Patil along with senior officials from the department met central educational minister Dharmendra Pradhan on November 2 and submitted copies of these four reports.

While the idea of the recommendation is to bring about a level playing field for students pursuing undergraduate degree courses, a section of academicians think otherwise.

“CUET for undergraduate courses would be unfair to a large number of students in the state. Our education system is such that a degree is mandatory requirement for a job. Such an entrance exam will result in a fall in the gross enrolment ratio in higher education,” said Dr Arun Sawant, former pro vicechancellor Mumbai University.

Officials in the department said admission based on scores of a CET will bring a level playing field among state board students vis-a-vis different education boards such as CBSE and CICSE, and will be beneficial to students who want apply to other universities in the state to pursue a course of their choice.