CUET's debut edition kicked off today: Here's what happened on day 1

The debut edition of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET)-UG began on Friday at test centres in over 510 cities in India and abroad.

With 1.49 million registrations, the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) began on Friday in over 500 Indian cities and 10 abroad.

Surpassing JEE-Main's average registration of 900,000, CUET, a common gateway for undergraduate admissions in all central universities, is now the second biggest entrance exam in the country.

The aspirants queuing outside the examination centres were an anxious lot, doing last minute preparations, to get an admission into popular central universities, like Delhi University, where the class 12 result was a deciding factor.

University Grants Commission chairman Jagadesh Kumar in a tweet wished the students best ahead of the exam. The test started at 9 am.

The first slot has around 810,000 candidates, whereas 680,000 students will appear for the second. These candidates have applied for 54,555 unique combinations of subjects across 90 universities, said Kumar.

"Given such a large number of subjects, a unique date sheet has been created for every individual candidate. Accordingly, advance intimation slips have been issued to all candidates with the date and city of the exam, followed by admit cards," he added.

The  aspirants who could not appear for the crucial exam on the first day due to a change in centres will get another chance in the second phase in August, according to National Testing Agency (NTA) officials.

The exam at two centres in West Bengal's New Jalpaiguri and Punjab's Pathankot was cancelled due to technical issues.

"Over 190 candidates who were to appear at the two centres will not be allowed to appear in the second phase in August. At other centres, the candidates who could not appear due to changes in exam centres will also get another chance," a senior NTA official said.

The exam is being conducted in two phases. Phase 1 will be held in July and Phase 2 in August. Candidates who have opted for Physics, Chemistry or Biology have been assigned to Phase 2 of the CUET exam, given that NEET (UG) - 2022 will be held on July 17.

The UGC chief had in March announced that CUET scores, and not class 12 marks, would be mandatory for admission to 45 central universities which can fix their minimum eligibility criteria.

Kumar had clarified that students from state boards will not be at a disadvantage under the new system and the exam will not give a push to the coaching culture.

A total of 44 central universities, 12 state universities, 11 deemed universities, and 19 private universities have applied to participate in the first edition of CUET-UG for admissions in the academic session 2022-23.

As opposed to the percentage system, the CUET score will be released in percentile, that is, it will indicate the position of a candidate vis-a-vis other candidates.

The UGC on Wednesday asked universities to fix deadlines for admissions to undergraduate courses after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declares class 12 exam results.

Noting that some universities have already started their admission process, the UGC said this will lead to the CBSE students being deprived of seats in these institutes.