NTA to re-conduct three UGC-NET papers after panel finds multiple errors

The September 9-10 re-examination for English, Commerce and Sociology follows a panel finding factual, typographical, translation and other errors in the papers

The National Testing Agency (NTA) will re-conduct the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) June 2026 examination for English, Commerce and Sociology after a committee found multiple errors in the question papers.

 

The committee found factual, typographical and translation errors, along with garbled book titles, errors in question wording, grammatical and punctuation mistakes, gender and number agreement errors, non-standard terms and repetition of a significant number of questions from previous examinations, the NTA said in a public notice on Sunday. The agency said the defects meant the papers did not meet the standards required for a fair and error-free examination.

 

The re-examination will be held on September 9 and 10. English will be held on September 9 from 9 am to noon, Commerce from 3 pm to 6 pm the same day, and Sociology on September 10 from 9 am to noon. No additional examination fee will be charged.

 

The development comes after candidates raised concerns over errors and repeated questions in the three papers. The NTA had also faced mounting criticism from UGC-NET aspirants over the delay in releasing the provisional answer key, with students warning of a protest outside its office on August 11 and saying the delay was affecting PhD admissions and assistant professor applications.

 

The NTA conducted the June 2026 UGC-NET from June 22 to 30 across 87 subjects for 736,000 students. The examination determines eligibility for Junior Research Fellowship, assistant professor positions and admission to PhD programmes.

 

Results for the other 84 subjects will be processed separately. For the three affected subjects, the number of candidates qualifying for assistant professor eligibility will remain at 6 per cent of candidates appearing in the original examination or re-test, whichever is higher. The subject-wise allocation of Junior Research Fellowship, assistant professor and PhD seats will also not be reduced because of the re-examination.