Admission to undergraduate programmes in all central universities will be conducted through the Central University Common Admission Test (CUCET) from 2022. The national entrance exam will be held by the National Testing Agency (NTA), according to the year-end review report of the Union education ministry. It will be conducted in multiple languages.

The education ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC) have alerted central varsities about the mandatory exam.

Delhi University (DU) is among the first universities that will switch to CUCET for admissions from 2022.

At present, most central universities admit undergraduate students on the basis of marks scored in Class XII exams.

The question pattern for CUCET 2022 is likely to be based on general ability. Students can expect to be tested in English language, numericals, logic and analytical reasoning, general awareness and current affairs. It will be a computer-based test involving multiple-choice questions.

A committee headed by R.P. Tiwari, the vice-chancellor of Punjab Central University, had earlier recommended CUCET for undergraduate and postgraduate admissions. The committee had suggested that admissions may be based on equal weightage to CUCET and Class XII marks. But vice-chancellors were in favour of admission by CUCET alone.

The Union education ministry’s year end report also mentioned the re-emergence of the Higher Education Finance Agency (HEFA), a non-banking finance company that offers infrastructure loans to public institutions for expansion. The agency is expected to “fund projects to the tune of Rs 1,00,000 crore” by 2022.

The AICTE internship portal that now lists 12.35 lakh internships and has 73 lakh students and 38,650 employers registered and the knowledge cell established by the Ministry of Education for preserving and promoting Indian knowledge system, arts and culture also found mention in the review.