NEW DELHI: University GrandCommissioni (UGC) chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar said on Thursday that "No formal decision has been taken on the merger of medical entrance exam NEET and engineering entrance test JEE with CUET-UG and nothing will be imposed on students."
The UGC chief's comments came 2 days after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan mentioned there are no plans to amalgamate JEE and NEET with the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for the next two years. The head of the University Grants Commission had already declared last month that the National Eligibility Cumulative Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) would eventually be combined into the CUET.
There is no formal decision that we have made on this; nothing will be imposed on students from the top that there will be a joint exam starting in the following year, Jagadesh Kumar said. "Merging of NEET and JEE with CUET is an idea we are floating, so that there is wider discussion among stakeholders," he added.
At a roundtable discussion on "Enhancing Competitiveness and Quality Revolution in Indian Higher Education," the UGC director made the remarks. "The current students, who are in classes 11 and 12, should not be impacted by any decision, even if one is made. Since it won't be put into effect for at least the next two years, we need to give them enough time. It will be carried out following sufficient consultations and consideration of input "he added.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled the exams at numerous centres during the first round of the CUET-UG, which started in July.
The CUET, the common entrance for undergraduate admissions in all central universities, has surpassed JEE-average Main's registration of nine lakh candidates to become the second-largest entrance exam in the nation with 14.9 lakh registrations.
With an average of 18 lakh registrations, NEET-UG is India's largest entrance examination. NEET is a pen-and-paper test, whereas JEE-Mains is a twice-yearly Computer-Based Test (CBT).
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