NET exams to continue through CBSE, no other mechanism, clarifies MHRD

Last year, CBSE approached HRD expressing its inability to conduct NET due to capacity crunch

The Central Board of Secondary Education will continue to conduct the National Eligibility Test for post graduate students to make them eligible for assistant professorship or junior research fellowship in universities.

Minister of State for HRD Mahendra Nath Pandey said this in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

"As per directions of the Ministry of HRD, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been conducting the National Eligibility Test (NET) examination. There is no proposal under consideration at present to entrust responsibility of conducting the exam through any other mechanism," he said in a written response.

The NET is held twice a year--July and December--for the grant of junior research fellowship and eligibility for assistant professorship in universities and colleges.

The CBSE had last year approached the HRD Ministry expressing its inability to conduct the exam due to capacity crunch as it was overburdened with other tests such as the JEE-MAIN and the NEET, for under-graduate engineering and medical courses.

The UGC had, in April, cleared the uncertainty over the exam saying it would be conducted by the CBSE, following which the July exam was pushed to November this year.