The National Testing Agency (NTA) has announced a re-conduct of the UGC-NET examination for three subjects following several complaints about errors and irregularities in the question papers.
The English and Commerce papers will be held again on September 9, while the Sociology examination is scheduled for September 10. The fresh examinations will be conducted for candidates who appeared for these subjects in the previous UGC-NET session.
UGC-NET examination was conducted across 87 subjects during the last week of June for eligibility for Assistant Professor posts, Junior Research Fellowships (JRF) and PhD admissions.
Following the exams, candidates and student groups raised concerns over errors in multiple question papers.
Among the complaints were:
Repeated questions from previous examinations
Spelling errors
Poor translations
Incorrectly presented names of scholars, particularly in the Sociology paper
Why are the three papers being re-conducted?
According to NTA Director Abhishek Singh, the agency received a significant number of complaints regarding errors in the English, Sociology and Commerce question papers. A committee was subsequently formed to examine the allegations.
After reviewing the complaints, the committee recommended re-conducting the three examinations to ensure candidates receive a fair, error-free examination opportunity.
The extent of the alleged repetition was particularly notable in the English paper. Around 67 of the 150 questions were reportedly identical to questions from the December 2024 UGC-NET English paper, including the same sequence of answer options.
In Commerce, more than 80 questions were alleged to have been repeated from the earlier paper.
The NTA said it will announce the city, examination centre, and admit card details for the re-examination separately on its official website.
Candidates appearing for these three subjects will not have to pay any additional examination fee for the re-conduct.
NTA takes steps after examination lapses
The re-examination comes amid wider criticism of the NTA over repeated issues affecting major competitive examinations.
The agency has removed more than 50 staff members and is bringing professionals into key leadership positions as part of efforts to strengthen its examination system.
The Education Ministry was also briefed on the measures being taken following the recent examination-related concerns and on plans to reform the agency's examination processes.
There was initially some confusion over the number of staff removed from NTA. An earlier post by Education Minister Pralhad Joshi stated that more than 50 staff members had been removed.
An official clarification later explained that the figure included 47 earlier removals, along with subsequent action.
