Common test to be conducted for engineering colleges from 2018

New Delhi: The year 2018 will bring an unified entrance test at an under graduate level for all engineering and architecture colleges across the nation, the Ministry of Human Resource Development announced on Friday. 

The test will be conducted multiple times a year with the HRD Ministry asking the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to spell out suitable norms for holding such an exercise.

The AICTE, which oversees aspects related to technical education in the country, had discussed the proposal at a recent meeting. The HRD ministry has told the AICTE that the proposal is in line with the government's policy and it could incorporate suitable regulations to enable the holding of such a test, sources said.

The test which is aimed at bringing uniformity in the education standards will be at par with the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test (NEET), replacing all other existing admission tests. NEET is a common entrance test introduced in 2016 to get through all medical and dental colleges barring AIIMS and JIPMER. 

The ministry is also in favour of seeking constructive suggestions from states and Deemed Universities for the successful holding of such a test, sources added.

It has also been decided that the single entrance test would be conducted multiple times every year and it will be designed in a way that the linguistic diversity of the country is taken into consideration, the sources added.

It is learnt that the coveted IITs, for which a nationwide competitive examination is held, may also be brought in under the ambit of the new test. Under the present system, the IITs conduct the entrance examinations to these institutes themselves.

The ministry has taken this decision to bring in greater transparency, maintain high standards and also try to ensure that students are saved the burden of taking too many tests, the sources said.

The HRD ministry's decision to conduct a common entrance examination for engineering colleges comes at a time when the government has already declared setting up of a National Testing Agency, which would be a specialised body for the conduct of various kinds of tests.

Officials, however, said it would be premature to say the single entrance test for engineering examination would also be entrusted to the National Testing Agency. (With PTI inputs)