In July 2022, India got a brand new “high-stakes” exam for our youth to fight out their rivals in the merciless arena of Indian higher-education—the Common University Entrance Test (CUET). Somewhat along the lines of its Chinese counterpart, or the Gaokao, the CUET (UG) was conducted across the nation, in a computer-based format, for admission to various undergraduate courses across a total of 90 universities. These included 44 central universities, 12 state universities, 13 deemed universities, and 21 private universities (MHRD 2022). Similarly, the CUET (PG), or the same exam for entrance into post-graduate programmes, saw participation of around 55 central, state, deemed, and private universities as per the latest data available on the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) website (NTA 2022b). With 14.9 lakh students registering for it, CUET(UG) became the second largest entrance exam in the country, with NEET (UG) retaining the top spot with 18 lakh registrations (Gohain 2022). Between 15th July and 30th August 2022, the CUET (UG) exam was conducted in six phases, 13 languages, across 259 Indian cities, and 10 cities outside of India (NTA 2022a).
