UP to conduct CET for PhD in state universities

In a significant initiative, Uttar Pradesh government has announced to conduct Common Entrance Test (CET) for PhD courses in all the state universities.

Besides, all the varsities will follow Minimum Common Syllabus (MCS) for ushering in uniformity and efficiency in education system. The twin suggestions were made in the Sehgal Committee report, which was submitted to the government on June 30.

To begin with, CET has been implemented in three state varsities viz. Lucknow University; Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut; and Deendayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University.

The remaining varsities would conduct Joint Entrance Test for which a coordination committee has been instituted under Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, Faizabad vice chancellor R C Saraswat.

The state government issued a Government Order (GO) yesterday.

CET would save prospective PhD students from multiple admission processes and costs in applying to different universities.

The government has also decided to institute a University Management System (UMS), which would contain a comprehensive database of all the students and teachers in respective universities.

State higher education minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi said as prelude to implementation of MCS, all the varsities had been provided with 63 syllabuses/programmes prepared by the Sehgal Committee.

All varsities have been directed to apprise the government by July 15 regarding the desired action taken by their respective Board of Studies for up-gradation and revision of syllabuses as groundwork for implementation of MCS.

With these steps, the government plans to implement MCS from the current 2011-12 academic session.

Meanwhile, the minister stressed on increasing the land bank for setting up new degree colleges in the state.