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View | CUCET alone can't solve India’s higher education crisis, as 2022 results show

CUCET for a university like JNU, where there is only one campus and centres with small intakes, is likely to spell disaster. How will the university, ranked highest in India in many subjects, allot, say, 50 seats in a centre from among, say, 1500 candidates with a perfect 100 percentile? Adding secondary criteria may also not work.

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By Vikas Pathak  Sept 19, 2022 9:13:34 AM IST (Published)

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View | CUCET alone can't solve India’s higher education crisis, as 2022 results show
The first results of the combined entrance test for admission to various programmes in central universities have not been encouraging from the point of view of higher education in the country.

About 20,000 candidates across disciplines scored a perfect 100 percentile in the Common Universities Entrance Test Undergraduate (CUCET UG) 2022.
This means that additional criteria will have to kick in to release a merit list for the highly competitive University of Delhi.
The University of Delhi has asked candidates to register at the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) dashboard and fill in their preferences, failing which the old preferences will become the basis for the allocation of seats.
The CUCET, on the lines of combined entrance exams for engineering and medical colleges, was expected to counter the astronomical cut-offs in colleges, particularly in DU, with several colleges in recent years seeing the first cut-offs at 100 percent in four out of the five subjects in Class-12.
However, the problem persists, and CUCET has delivered thousands of 100-percentile scorers in several subjects. This means that top courses in Delhi University colleges will still be almost impossible to get into.
Once the option of government universities dies out, what remains is the private university space, where the fees are high. Those who can afford it can get admission, but this leaves out the poor and the lower middle classes, thus making education appear more of an elite privilege than a democratic right.
The core issue here is a demand-supply mismatch. Forty-fifty years ago, India had several good universities. The number has dwindled now, as several state universities have declined and new central universities have failed to pick up. In the meantime, literacy, aspiration and population have increased.
My own journey in 1997 from the University of Rajasthan, as a gold medalist, to JNU, as the last ranker in the entrance examination, straddled two different worlds. The difference in quality between these two universities was like two galaxies, and adjusting to the pace of JNU took more than a year.
However, the same University of Rajasthan in the previous generation boasted the likes of the eminent historian KN Panikkar, my professor at JNU. Within one generation, the University of Rajasthan had undergone a terminal decline.
This story is not that of one university. It is the story of higher education in India. There was a time, in the first few decades after independence, when there were multiple good universities between Delhi and Kolkata. East of Delhi University came to Aligarh Muslim University, boasting the likes of Mohammad Habib and Nur-ul-Hasan. Close to it was Agra University, where Dr Hala, later the principal of St Stephen’s College in Delhi, studied.
Then came Allahabad, once called the Oxford of the East, where eminent names like Tara Chand, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Mahadevi Verma and Firaq Gorakhpuri once taught. East of this came to Banaras Hindu University, which was a leading university in many subjects. Further east came to Patna University, which once boasted scholars like RN Nandi. Then came Calcutta University, which has had alumni like Amartya Sen.
Pune University in Maharashtra was also renowned. And so was Madras University.
However, what remains of value today at the undergraduate level is largely Delhi University, and students from across India want to join it. This makes cut-offs impossible, be it through an entrance exam or via Class-12 results.
Agra and Allahabad Universities are dead. AMU and BHU barely trudge along. The iconic Presidency College of Kolkata is a shadow of its former self as a university. Thankfully, Jadavpur University still maintains heft.
CUCET for a university like JNU, where there is only one campus and centres with small intakes, is likely to spell disaster. How will the university, ranked highest in India in many subjects, allot, say, 50 seats in a centre from among, say, 1500 candidates with a perfect 100 percentile? Adding secondary criteria may also not work.
The answer, unequivocally, is more universities, and the revival of state universities that have declined. Several central universities came in the last decade or two. But the only central universities with quality are JNU, Delhi University and Hyderabad Central University. And Jamia Millia Islamia for some subjects. The rest are just functional.
The budgetary allocation for universities has to increase. Faculty appointments need to be transparent and not via pedigree or politics. Libraries need to buy relevant books. Syllabi need to be updated. CUCET is a good concept, but the questions have to be subjective rather than in the MCQ format.
Government schools in India collapsed, and were replaced by private schools. But private universities alone cannot solve the problem of higher education. For, not everyone can afford them, unless a student is lucky and gets a fellowship.
As the higher education system bursts at its seams, it is important for India to revive it at any cost. Else, we will be Vishwa Guru only in our dreams.
— Vikas Pathak is a columnist and media educator. The views expressed are his own.

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