TN refuses CET for universities

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The human resource development (HRD) ministry is planning to introduce common entrance test (CET) for all universities in the country.

The ministry has suggested that universities take class XII results and marks scored in entrance examination into consideration for admission to undergraduate courses.

The state government, however, has ruled out a common entrance test for engineering, arts, science and medical courses.

A senior UGC official told this newspaper on Saturday that all universities conducted their own entrance examinations but nobody monitored the quality. “With the growing need for quality in entrance examinations to admit students, MHRD has time and again emphasised on the need for a well-organised, national-level examination,” he said.

The ministry discussed the proposal in detail during a meeting of all vice-chancellors recently with some favouring and others opposing it. “To keep school education and undergraduate education relevant, MHRD has asked universities to admit students based on school-level exams and entrance exams in a 1:1 ratio,” the official added.

The HRD ministry has also asked universities to upload all information rela-ted to admission policy, courses and curricula, inta-ke and output strength of each course on the university website to maintain better transparency.

Prof A. Ramasamy, vice-chairman, Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Educa-tion (TANSCHE), said that the state government had scrap-ped common entrance tests a couple of years ago with the SC upholding the order.