UGC actively considering to outsource UGC-NET exam

UGC is actively considering to outsource the UGC-NET exam held for candidates who wish to qualify for university level teaching jobs or for junior research fellowship.
The matter came up for exhaustive deliberation today at the full commission meeting against the backdrop of increased complaints every year about mismanagement in conducting the test.
Sources said some members were for partial outsourcing of the prestigious test while the rest were of the view that the entire exercise should be outsourced as UGC was "not competent" enough in conducting it.
Some more rounds of deliberations are expected before a final decision is taken, they said.

The development assumes significance in light of the fact that the HRD Ministry has constituted a task force on developing a national testing scheme holding entrance tests for professional and academic courses such as engineering, management or any other national-level test.
According to ministry officials, UGC-NET exam could be conducted through this scheme.

The newly launched four-year undergraduate programme by Delhi University figured in the meeting with one of the members raising the issue and underscoring the fact that the varsity should have sought UGC approval to run the programme.
Though some members felt it was already a "dead subject" given that the programme is already underway, others felt that DU should have respected the regulatory authority of UGC.

According to sources, difference among the members continued to persist on the issue, even as UGC chairman Ved Prakash reminded of setting up of an advisory committee to monitor the progress of the implementation of the under graduate programme.
He is understood to have said the committee was set up in face of opposition from several quarters about implementation of the programme.
The commission is also understood to have approved the takeover of the distance education council by UGC from IGNOU.