According to the National Testing Agency (NTA) nearly 1.5 million students have applied for the national common entrance test this year, as against around 990,000 students last year.
This year Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Jharkhand have seen the number of applications go up by 6.7 times than the previous year, making it a challenge for the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the tests, to identify enough exam centres.
The shortage of centres prompted the agency to cancel the first phase of exam schedule in J&K and look for a temporary centre in Srinagar while many students still may have to take the exam in a neighbouring state or city.
The CUET UG 2023 exam is scheduled from May 21 to June 6.
University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson, Prof M Jagadesh Kumar explains the challenges while addressing concerns of students about this year’s exam.
He says, "This year, we have received a total of 14.99 lakh applications for CUET-UG, which is 41 per cent more than the count of 9.9 lakh last year. Of this, two states — J&K and Jharkhand — have recorded a phenomenal rise in the number of applications which is 6.7 times higher than the number of applications received last year. While 87,309 students have applied from J&K this year as compared to 13,021."
He adds, "For Jharkhand we received 1,78,630 applications from , the count for which last year stood at 26,497. When combined, it means that 17.74 per cent of all students who have applied for the exam are from these two states alone."
University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson, who is monitoring the CUET with NTA, said the agency is trying to allot students their first or second preference of examination centres.
“But we are facing a unique challenge in J&K and Jharkhand, because there aren’t many centres available there. In spite of our best efforts, after exhausting the centres in their respective states, they are now given in the neighbouring states. The city information slip is released in advance, so that they have time to make travel arrangements,” he said.
The top five states in number of applicants this year are :
Uttar Pradesh (UP), Jharkhand, Delhi, Bihar and J&K.
Then, the other regions that have also recorded a notable surge include the Northeast (all eight states), which has seen a 31 per cent increase in overall applicants from last year’s debut edition.
This is followed by southern states, where Kerala and Tamil Nadu have recorded a major surge of 51 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively.
