Meghalaya State, Private Universities Exempted From CUET to 'Avoid Distress Among Students'

State-run and private universities and colleges based in Meghalaya will be exempted from admitting students via the newly-introduced Common University Entrance Test (CUET) 2022 for undergraduate courses. Earlier, the government had made it mandatory for all central universities to use the CUET score to enroll students in the academic session 2022-23. The UGC had also asked state government run as well as privately owned institutes to use CUET score as well. Meghalaya, however, will be an exemption in this case.

This comes after the Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma had written a letter to Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan seeking relaxation for the state citing lack of preparedness for the exam from both authorities as well as the students.

“You may be aware that Meghalaya have 12 districts and the identified exam centre for CUET is only in Shillong which would likely to cater 25,000 aspirants from across the state. This scenario is likely to cause a lot of distress and anxiety among students, especially from outlying districts,” the Chief Minister said in his letter to Pradhan.

The letter urged the central government to “provide state ample time to spread awareness and critical information on CUET to all students and sufficient time for them to prepare.”

It added, “due to time constraints and confusion that is prevailing among students of class 12” many expert believe adopting the exam for admission to current academic session might not be a good idea and hence had sought the exemption in April.

The CM, however, also added that the “Common University Entrance Test (CUET) will provide a common platform and level opportunities to candidates across the country, especially those from rural and other remote areas and help establish better connect with universities”.

Weeks after his letter, the CM took to Twitter to thank the Education Minister Pradhan for “exempt(ing) non-centrally funded/private colleges & State Govt aided colleges from appearing for the CUET exams.” Stating that it will “addresses the concerns of students of our State to a great extent.”

In the first week of opening the application forms for CUET, the entrance exam had received over  1 lakh applications. While number of early applications were high from north India, fewer students from Southern states applied. The Ministry of Education data shows that Uttar Pradesh has, so far, shown the highest number of applications with as many as 36,611 students applying for the exam till April 13. Delhi was next with 23,418 applicants and Bihar with 12,275 applicants registered for the exam.

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