A panel of experts comprising of several vice-chancellors appointed by Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal have submitted their final report and blueprint to the minister regarding the common admission procedure that has been recommended for all central universities in India. According to the blueprint that has been finalized by the panel that is headed by former Jawaharlal Nehru University vice chancellor B.B. Bhattacharya, good under-graduate scores would remove half the pressure on a student of securing a post graduate admission in a central university. This is because 50% weightage will be given to the previous academic performance of a student and the rest will be given to performance in the common entrance test. The blue print for the common admissions will be discussed by the vice chancellors of about 200 central and state universities in India on March 25-26. Kapil Sibal has also planned common admissions to M.Phil. and Ph.D programmes at all of India's 40 central universities from the upcoming academic session of 2011. According to the plans by the HRD ministry, the common entrance test for universities will also be extended for master's programmes in the year 2012 and to undergraduate programmes from the year 2013. Admissions to central universities currently rely only on admission test for selecting students to be admitted for masters, M.Phil and Ph.D programmes. No specific weightage is given to scores achieved by students in previous programmes. According to the University Grants Commission (UGC), an estimated number of 100 lakh students are pursuing undergraduate education currently over 500 central, state and deemed universities. Out of these, about 10 lakh students are studying at central universities. Also, around a lakh are pursuing masters' programmes at central universities and about 5-10,000 are currently enrolled in M.Phil. and Ph.D programmes. Earlier, the panel of vice chancellors headed by B.B. Bhattacharya had considered giving 30% weightage to scores of undergraduate degree programmes for master's admissions master's scored for M.Phil and M.Phil scores for Ph.D. The weightage given to previous scores has been hiked by the panel in its final report. The report adds that only the scores of the final two years of the preceding academic degree course will be considered.
