Prestigious SET, CUCET entrance exams to clash today

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Srinagar: Kashmir Universitys reluctance to change the date for entrance exam for the State Eligibility Test (SET) scheduled for May 22 has left hundreds of aspirants in dilemma as the date clashes with the competitive exams for the Central University Common Entrance Test (CUCET).
With many a candidate having applied for both the prestigious exams, the date clash means that aspirants have choice to appear in either of the two, and shun the other one for no fault of theirs.
The CUCET exam is conducted as a participatory exam by consortium of nine universities including Haryana, Jammu, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kashmir, Kerela, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, for the admission of the candidates to various programs. As per the official notification, the dates have been scheduled for May 21 and 22 across India.
On the other hand, ignoring his fact, the SET entrance to be conducted by Kashmir University for Assistant Professor equally falls on May 22. Though the KU is holding the SET after three years, the varsity has failed to avoid clash of exam date.
Officials said the only option to end the deadlock was that the KU, which is the examining body for the SET should have taken a timely decision in the change of exam date that too when it was impossible for the national level varsity to reconsider exam dates.
Around a month back, when the dates for SET exams were announced, the aspirants who had equally applied for the CUCET formally appealed the Vice Chancellor, KU, Prof Khurshid Andrabi to change the date for the state level exam. He was appealed to ask the SET exam coordinator to reconsider his half-baked decision on exam date.
But the KU Vice-Chancellor trashed the appeals saying it was logically impossible to change the date for SET exams. Arguing that they would lose their right to appear in the two exams, the aspirants had again KU VC to reconsider his decision. But officials confirmed to Kashmir Observer that SET exams have been upheld for Sunday.
This has left the aspirants shattered. The students said they want to apply for maiden M-Tech and PHD program in Central University, but that the clash in exam dates has pushed them to the wall.
Kashmir University should have changed the dates on humanitarian grounds in a bid to give some comfort to the aspiring candidates. This is sheer injustice that out of ego problem with the central university the KU played with our career, the candidates said, adding that CUCET is held across the country and that makes it impossible to modify the exam dates.
Candidates who have secured at least 55 percent marks in Masters Degree or equivalent examination from universities or any institutions recognized by University Grants Commission (UGC) in Sciences, Humanities (including languages) and Social Science, Computer Science and Applications, Electronic Science are eligible for SET. Similar is the criteria for the CUCET.
When contacted a top KU official said it was impossible to change that dates as bigger number of around 36,000 candidates was to appear in the SET, whereas the number of aspirants for CUCET was marginally less. If we have bigger number of candidates, the central university should have reconsidered its decision. Why should our importance be ignored? the official said.

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