The first Andhra Pradesh State Eligibility Test (APSET), being conducted after a gap of 13 years, is receiving a huge response from students.
Osmania University, which is conducting the SET, has received more than one lakh applications so far.
Earlier, with no SET, AP students had to opt for UGC's National Eligibility Test (NET) all these years, which earlier had about 10,000 applicants and less than 5 pass percentage.
The University Grants Commission has accorded accreditation to OU to conduct SET for this year in 24 subjects.
The SET, which was earlier known as SLET (State Level Eligibility Test) was last held in the state in 1998. Under new UGC norms, qualification in the NET or the SET is mandatory for appointment to faculty positions at universities and degree colleges.
But since NET was held only in English and Hindi, Telugu medium students found it difficult to clear the test.. As a result, less than 5 per cent candidates, out of 10,000 registered, cleared NET in the last few years.
With this, the demand for restoring SET came to the fore. Several students missed the opportunity to register for the degree college lecturers recruitment exam to be conducted by the APPSC soon as they failed to obtain NET qualification. These candidates are demanding postponement of the exam till the first SET results are declared so that those qualifying in SET will get an opportunity to take the recruitment exam.
OU will hold the test in anthropology, commerce, economics, English, life sciences, management, history, mathematics, physical education, political science, public administration, Telugu, chemical sciences, computer science, earth sciences, linguistics, law, education, Hindi, physical sciences, philosophy, psychology, sociology and Urdu.