For candidates hit by cancellations, CUET to be conducted from Aug 24-28

New Delhi, Aug. 7 (PTI): The Common University Entrance Test (CUET)-UG for candidates, who were affected by cancellations last week owing to technical glitches, will now be conducted from August 24 to 28, according to officials of the National Testing Agency.

Fresh admit cards will be issued for these candidates, they said.

“In second phase, the exam scheduled between August 4 to 6 were deferred at few centres due to administrative and technical reasons. Earlier, we had announced the exams would be conducted from August 12-14. NTA had also given an option to the affected candidates to choose dates other than these dates in case the schedule was not suitable to them,” said Sadhana Parashar, Senior Director, NTA.

A total of “15,811 candidates requested a date different from 12 to 14 August 2022. Similarly, many candidates have approached NTA requesting not to schedule their examination between 12 to 14 August as a series of festivals are falling during this period. Also, many candidates had requested for date or city change as the cities allotted to them in Phase II (04 to 06 August 2022) were not suitable to them,” she added.

The NTA official said that keeping in mind the requests, it was decided that the exam be conducted between August 24 and 28 and fresh admit cards will be issued before the examination date.

The third phase of the examination on 17, 18, and 20 August, 2022 will be conducted as per schedule informed earlier to the candidates.

“NTA has also created an exclusive grievance redressal e-mail. The grievances of candidates regarding subject combination, medium, question paper (if any) can be sent to cuetgrievance@nta.ac.in. Candidates must mention their Application Number while sending their grievance,” Parashar said.

The second phase of CUET-UG which began on Thursday, August 4 was marred with glitches causing trouble to students who were sent back from exam centres.

On Thursday, the first shift of the exam was cancelled at several centres across 17 states, while the second shift was cancelled at all 489 centres. On Friday, the exam was cancelled at 50 centres.

Anticipating the same situation on Saturday, the agency cancelled the CUET-UG for the day at 53 centres and sent messages to candidates about its postponement on Friday night.

Noting that some centres failed to comply (with the) laid down protocols, the NTA had on Saturday warned that any incidence of non-compliance, sabotage and ignorance will be viewed very seriously and strict action will be taken against those centres to ensure smooth conduct of examinations in future.

UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar had in March announced that CUET scores will be the basis for admission to 45 central universities which can fix their minimum eligibility criteria.

With 14.9 lakh registrations, the CUET is now the second-biggest entrance exam in the country, surpassing the JEE-Main’s average registration of nine lakh.

Apart from central universities, 12 state universities, 11 deemed universities, and 19 private universities have applied to participate in the first edition of CUET-UG for admissions in the academic session 2022-23.