New Delhi | The schedule for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET)-UG is likely to be changed depending on the Lok Sabha elections schedule, according to UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday announced that the exam would be conducted from May 15 to 31 and the results declared on June 30.

India is gearing up for general elections to elect its 18th Lok Sabha, the schedule for which is likely to be announced this month.

"The dates announced by the NTA are tentative. Once the election dates are announced, the NTA will finalise the CUET-UG dates. The tentative schedule is from May 15," University Grants Commission (UGC) chief Kumar told PTI on Sunday.

The application process for CUET-UG began on Tuesday and will conclude on March 26.

Introduced in 2022, the CUET-UG provides a single-window opportunity to students seeking admission in any of the central universities or other participating organisations, including state, deemed and private universities, across the country.

Marking a shift, the NTA has announced that the exam would be conducted in a hybrid mode -- Computer Based Test for a few subjects and in pen-and-paper mode for others.

Officials had said that for subjects having a high number of registrations, the exam will be conducted in the pen-and-paper mode using the optical mark recognition (OMR) format. For others, it will continue to be computer based.

Last year, the testing agency had received approximately 14.9 lakh registrations for CUET-UG.