UGC Permits Universities to Hold Independent Entrance Exams for Unfilled Seats
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In what comes as a significant move over better access to higher education, the University Grants Commission declared that varsities can have their entrance examinations for undergraduate and postgraduate courses if the seats remain vacant after the usual admission rounds. Touted to be taken at its 572nd meeting, the decision shall ensure no seat remains empty to ensure maximum opportunities for students in pursuit of quality education.
According to UGC Chairman, Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar, every seat is valuable in our universities. He has reportedly said that though counseling, done on the basis of Common University Entrance Test scores, was conducted in multiple rounds, many seats in Central Universities and colleges affiliated to them remain vacant. Apart from the wastage of resources, this trend will deprive aspiring students of their rightful opportunity to pursue courses of their choice.
The situation is supposed to be handled based on the standard operating procedures issued by UGC on how universities shall proceed. First and foremost, universities are supposed to base their admissions on CUET scores. In case of vacancies after the first three rounds of admissions, there is a provision for relaxing the subject criteria to make more seats available to students. If they remain vacant, the seats can be subsequently filled based on entrance exams conducted by them or by marks in qualifying examinations.
The idea behind this initiative is to obviate situations of missed opportunities to students and to ensure that no institution of learning remains lacking in effort to fill up the available seats. According to Prof. Kumar, UGC is committed to facilitating access to higher education. He added that “the universities must make all efforts to ensure that students are offered admission so that no seat is left unfilled.”
Looking forward, the implementation by the universities shall consider transparency and merit of admission so that each student has a fair chance of gaining admission to their preferred programs.
