Indore: Has DAVV jumped the gun in CUET case?

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): In a major administrative move, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya on Saturday announced that it would do away with the common entrance test (CET) and opt for scores of Central University Entrance Test (CUET) to grant admission in its teaching departments from session 2022-23.

A day after the announcement, many senior teachers in the university denounced the move by authorities as CUET, as of now, is only for admission in undergraduate courses.

Through CET, the DAVV admits students in both PG and UG courses whereas CUET is only for admission in UG programmes. Still, the university authorities announced that they would scrap CET and opt for CUET for admission in professional programmes offered by its teaching departments.

“The persons sitting in the chair claim that they had a verbal message from UGC that PG courses will also be brought under CUET. Until that was done, the university authorities should have not made such an announcement. They were expected to act responsibly,” said a senior professor wishing anonymity.

He said that the university image takes a beating due to such naïve announcements from which they might have to backtrack.

Head of a teaching department agreed with the professor saying that DAVV wanted to be the first one to be part of CUET from the state so they made the announcement without giving much thought to all aspects of CUET.

“Just for point-scoring, the announcement was made. The universities are expected to make rational decisions. This one was taken in anticipation which was uncalled for,” he added.

However, those sitting in the chairs toned down the matter.

“UGC is very likely to issue notification of admission in PG programmes too through CUET within a fortnight. After getting concrete information from UGC, we made an announcement of opting CUET scores for admission in DAVV programmes,” said Prof Ashok Sharma, rector of DAVV.

He clarified that the university had clarified its will to be part of CUET and not issue any notification for the same as of now.

“I don’t think there is any programme in expressing our will. If in any case, things did not go to our plan, we have other options as well,” he added.

When contacted, a high ranked officer in UGC told Free Press that admission in PG programmes too will be conducted through CUET in central universities.

“However, I can’t exactly tell when that is going to happen,” he added.

Published on: Monday, April 11, 2022, 10:08 AM IST