While India’s CUET-PG Applications Fell, One Lucknow University Gained 2,624 Seekers
Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Lucknow received 18,589 postgraduate applications for 2,611 seats this year, its highest count in four years even as national CUET-PG registrations declined.
Most Indian universities watched postgraduate interest cool this year. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) in Lucknow did the opposite: it just logged 18,589 applications for 2,611 postgraduate seats, its highest total in four years.
The number marks a sharp jump from last year’s 15,965 applications, and from 2023 and 2024, when the count of candidates who paid the admission fee hovered around 15,000 each year. Admissions to BBAU’s 55 postgraduate programmes run through CUET-PG, the common entrance test used by central universities across the country.
That makes the Lucknow campus’s rise unusual, because the national picture moved the other way. ‘Overall, the number of applications for CUET-PG has gone down. Last year, around 5.5 lakh candidates registered for admissions to central universities across the country, but the number has dropped to 3.5 lakh this year,’ said Prof Amit Kumar Singh, BBAU’s admission coordinator. ‘Despite this decline, applications to BBAU are showing an increasing trend.’
Singh called the figures ‘really encouraging’ for the university. Some of BBAU’s courses are now drawing over 40 applicants for every available seat, making this year’s postgraduate admissions among the most competitive the university has handled.
The MCA programme has emerged as the single most sought-after course on campus, pulling in 2,031 applications for just 60 seats. The MBA programme followed close behind, with 1,855 applications for 90 seats. ‘Our professional programmes continue to dominate student preference,’ Singh said.
Wikimedia Commons/by Vineetway18
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