NEW DELHI: Acknowledging the technical glitches during the Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET-UG) 2022 exams at some of the centres, the University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson on Sunday said that some of the exams were also cancelled or postponed due to reports of sabotage.

Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has extended the Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET-UG) 2022 till August 28, 2022.

Candidates who were affected by cancellations last week owing to technical glitches will now be accommodated in this fourth phase.

Notifying the same on Sunday, NTA said that fresh admit cards will be issued to these candidates.

With 53 centres of the 489 being out of action from Saturday, the test faced no disruption due to technical issues on Sunday as well.

The third phase of the examination on August 17, 18, and 20 2022 will be conducted as per schedule informed earlier to the candidates.

Stating that CUET-UG is a mammoth exercise with tests being conducted for 61 subjects in 13 languages, M Jagadesh Kumar, chairperson, UGC on Friday said that the process in place has been designed keeping in mind the sanctity of the exams and the interests of the students being paramount.

Kumar acknowledged the glitches and said that the staff at the centres should have shown more empathy towards the students.

However, he raised another concern.

“Due to technical glitches in some of the centres, the test had to be re-scheduled. At some centres, the centre staff should have shown more empathetic with the students. There were also reports and indications of sabotage in the process. NTA immediately swung into action and cancelled and postponed examinations in centres which witnessed such a possibility. Strict action will be taken against anyone involved in wilful sabotage of the process,”

NTA in its notification said that in the second phase, the exam scheduled between August 4 to 6 were deferred at few centres due to administrative and technical reasons.

“Earlier, we had announced the exams would be conducted from August 12-14. NTA had also given an option to the affected candidates to choose dates other than these dates in case the schedule was not suitable to them,” said Sadhana Parashar, senior director, NTA.

According to NTA, 15,811 candidates requested a date different from August 12 to 14. Similarly, many candidates have approached NTA requesting not to schedule their examination between August 12 to 14 as a series of festivals are falling during this period. Also, many candidates had requested for date or city change as the cities allotted to them in Phase II (August 4 to 6) were not suitable to them.

With 14.9 lakh registrations, the CUET is now the second-biggest entrance exam in the country, surpassing the JEE-Mains’ average registration of nine lakhs.

On Thursday, the first shift of the exam was cancelled at several centres across 17 states, while the second shift was cancelled at all 489 centres. On Friday, the exam was cancelled at 50 centres.

Kumar said that cancellation of the test in some centres was done keeping the best interests of the students in mind.

“NTA is constantly in touch with the students through email, messaging and voice mail to keep them informed of the changes and extra care is being taken in this regard. A special Email id cuetgrievance@nta.ac.in has been created to receive and address students’ queries and grievances,” he said, adding that more school teachers are being deployed as they have more experience of dealing with the students with empathy.