Central varsity VCs agree on new system for UG admission

Updated on: Friday, October 01, 2010

Vice Chancellors of Central universities today agreed on a new system for admission to undergraduate programmes and student mobility between these institutions.

As per the new selection process, the admission could be a combination of marks obtained in class XII and scores obtained in a common aptitude test to be conducted nationally, said HRD Minister Kapil Sibal.

He said the weightage given to each of these would be decided by the individual universities.

"There was a consensus among Vice Chancellors of all the Central Universities to this admission process as the present process of testing puts an immense burden on students," he told reporters after charing a meeting with the VCs.

He said a detailed report would be presented within two months by a core committee as to how to implement the decision "so that we attempt to start this process in the next academic session".

He said the new system would ensure that the students give equal importance to plus two and discourage the rote learning process.

For admission to post-graduate level in these universities, he said the VCs agreed on a "admission process which could again be a combination of marks obtained at the graduate level and a common test having some subject component". The modalities would be worked out by the central universities keeping specific requirements in mind.

Seven of the 15 new central universities have already adopted a common entrance test for admission.

Talking about the new admission process at the undergraduate level, he said the consensus was reached keeping in mind the provisions of the new central university statute which says that admission shall take place on the basis of
all-India test.

However, he said though the VCs have agreed on this system, unwilling universities can continue with their existing admission process.

"We are not forcing anybody. VCs feel this should be done. The academic council (of the universities) has to agree. If they don't agree... they don't agree," he said.

He said there would a system of credit transfer between these universities for student mobility, which could be in place by the next academic session.

There would be bilateral transaction between the universities for which MoUs would be entered into, he said, adding a committee of VCs would draft a model MoU in this regard.

The association of Indian universities would also be approached to widen this scope among the state universities. A central university portal would also be created for facilitating student mobility, Sibal said.

He said consensus was reached on several other issues and detailed modalities would be worked out for each of these initiatives for consideration in the next meeting of the VCs in the next two months.

He said there was a consensus on starting a four year integrated BA-B Ed. and BSc-B Ed. programme by the next academic session by the Central universities. Students would, however, have the flexibility of withdrawing from the programme after completion of BA or BSc programme.

"This would help in creating a pool of qualified teachers and address the shortfall of teachers," he said.

Consensus was also reached on having a code of conduct for university administrators, faculty, staff and students.

The VCs also suggested starting of a programme for training of academic managers to infuse professionalism in management of academic institutions.

Significantly, he said the meeting also decided to create a category of 'navratna' universities among the 504 universities in the country. These universities will establish benchmarks for others to compete. "They would also have financial and academic autonomy," he said.

He said the assets of the varsities will be optimally utilised for vocational training and skill development with an aim to empower the student community.

Sharing of faculty among Central universities would also be worked out, he said.

Central varsity VCs agree on new system for UG admission

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