Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has conveyed to the Centre that it will not participate in the proposed common entrance test for central universities.
AMU public relation in-charge Professor M Shafey Kidwai said the university’s academic council decided to continue with the existing admissions policy for the time being.
“The case pertaining to AMU’s minority status is in the Supreme Court. In 2006, the apex court had stayed the Allahabad High Court’s 2005 order that struck down the minority status. So, when the Centre’s proposal to carry out a common entrance test across central universities was placed before the academic council of AMU, a decision was taken to not fiddle with the existing arrangements as the case remains pending in the SC,” Kidwai said.
While religion-based quotas are not part of AMU’s admissions policy, it earmarks 50 per cent of seats in all its courses for students from AMU-run schools.
The Centre has not yet announced the modalities of the proposed common entrance test. A senior Ministry of Education official said that during discussions with stakeholders, it emerged that most universities favoured making board exam scores a simple eligibility criteria.
“Rather than giving board exam scores a certain weightage of 50 per cent or 70 per cent, it might just be an eligibility criteria. It can mean two things. One, to be eligible for admissions through the entrance, a student will need to score minimum aggregate marks which will be announced. Or they should figure in a certain percentile of class 12 pass out students in a particular board,” an official privy to the ongoing discussions on the test said.