AGARTALA: The Tripura University has become the top preferred destination of students across the country to get admitted to postgraduate courses in the 2022-23 academic session, revealed the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) record.
Among 66 universities in the country, the 15-year-old Central University of Tripura has become the fourth choice after Banaras Hindu University, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, and Hemavati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Uttarakhand.
According to reports, the Tripura University has an intake capacity of only 3,031 in all 39 departments with 43 courses. But over 2.94 lakh students chose the university for admission for the 2022-23 session that will be conducted through a common entrance test, scheduled to be held across the country from September 1 to September 11.
“The Banaras Hindu University ranked top in the list in terms of students’ interest in getting admission and has received 3.54 lakh applications, among them 2.94 students made Tripura University as one of their preference,” said TU Vice-Chancellor Prof Ganga Prasad Prasain.
The CUET record said Tripura University is followed by Manipur University and Northeastern Hill University in terms of admission preference. According to university officials, in National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Tripura University could not rank within 200 because of poor scores in two indexes — research and publications and peer perception — although it scored better in teaching-learning, graduation outcome and outreach activities.
“Despite having talents, the Tripura University has not yet been able to boost research activities and publications due to financial crunch as the internal revenue generation scopes were narrowed down after closure of Distance Education in 2020. Moreover, the external funding to the academic activities and research is not adequate, which affected the NIRF score,” said university officials.
They added that the peer perception index was evaluated based on industry support along with academic voting.
But in case of Tripura University, both the tools failed to perform due to lack of exposure and geographical isolation. Not qualifying in NIRF evaluation never justified the academic status of any university or its talent, which proved in CUET record this year, said Assistant Register (Academic) Dr Somdeb Banik.
