CUET debut edition concludes at 60% attendance; results likely by Sept 9 | Competitive Exams

The debut edition of the Common University Entrance Test for undergraduate admissions (CUET-UG), which concluded on Tuesday, recorded 60% consolidated attendance across the country for all six phases, the National Testing Agency (NTA) said. The agency is aiming to announce the results in the next 10 days i.e tentatively by September 9, officials said.

According to the NTA, while the exam was successfully conducted across the country on the last day of CUET on Tuesday, technical issues were reported at the center in Jharkhand and the exam for 103 affected students will be conducted shortly.

“The attendance across the Country is estimated to be about 60%,” the agency said.

Officials at NTA said that attendance was not low and in areas where there were central universities, including Delhi, the attendance was recorded between 75%-80%. “The 60% attendance is calculated from across the country. This time, the universities of north eastern states were exempted from CUET due to operational difficulties. Therefore, attendance was recorded less in those states. Overall, the CUET was conducted successfully across the country,” said the official.

University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said that the commission will examine the possible reasons behind 60% attendance. “We are aiming to announce the results in 10 days from the last exam date,” he said.

The CUET exam, which was initially planned in two phases, had to be conducted in six phases due to multiple cancellations and postponement of papers after technical issues were reported at the examination centers. While the first phase was conducted in July, the remaining five phases were held throughout August.

The exam has been conducted across 489 examination centers located in 259 cities across India and 10 cities outside India. A total 14,90,000 candidates had registered for the examination.

As per the NTA data, while 12,04,000 candidates were slated to take the exam in the first five phases, 2,86,000 candidates were scheduled for the sixth phase that was concluded on Tuesday.

“The fourth and last day of Phase 6 of CUET (UG) – 2022 i.e. 30 August 2022 (Tuesday) was conducted successfully for 1,40,559 candidates in 444 Examination Centers throughout 239 Cities including 04 cities outside India (Muscat, Riyadh, Dubai, and Sharjah) in both slots,” the NTA said in a statement.

The Agency said that as per the initial reports of today, due to slow internet speed, the examination at Center Radha Govind University, Ramgarh, Jharkhand could not be conducted. “However, a detailed report is awaited. Examination for 103 affected candidates will be conducted shortly,” it said.

On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh had maximum numbers of candidates (52885) with 125 examination centers followed by West Bengal (10744) with 35 centers. Besides, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim and Tripura and Cities outside India had one examination centre each.

The Union government said in March that it would conduct CUET-UG, in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and made its score a mandatory yardstick for all central universities while keeping it optional for others. Around 90 universities, including 43 central universities, are participating in CUET-UG this year.