Paper leak : NTA announces new dates for UGC-NET, CSIR-UGC NET, NCET

National Testing Agency (NTA) announces new dates for exams that were postponed earlier. (Photo: Shutterstock) The National Testing Agency (NTA), on Friday night, announced the new dates for the cancelled and postponed examinations, amid a raging controversy over alleged irregularities.

"This is to inform all concerned candidates that due to certain unavoidable circumstances, some of the National Testing Agency (NTA) examinations were postponed/cancelled. Now, the fresh dates for these examinations have been finalised," said NTA in a statement.

According to the new NTA examination calendar, the National Common Entrance Test (NCET) 2024, which was postponed hours before its schedule on June 12, will now be conducted on July 10. The joint Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (CSIR-UGC NET), which was postponed as a preemptive measure, will be taking place from July 25 -27, NTA said. The UGC-NET June 2024 cycle, which was cancelled a day after being conducted on June 18, will now be conducted between August 21 and September 4.

The UGC-NET exam on June 18 was held in two shifts in pen and paper (offline) mode across 317 cities. More than 900,000 candidates appeared for the UGC-NET exam. The rescheduled exam will now be conducted according to the Computer Based Test (CBT) system, spread across a fortnight, said NTA.

While addressing the matter of cancellation of UGC-NET, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “Soon after it was clear that the UGC-NET question paper on darknet matches the original question paper of UGC-NET, we decided to cancel the examination. We take responsibility and have to rectify the system.”

Later, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry showed that the paper was leaked on June 16, merely two days prior to the exam, via the darknet and various encrypted social media platforms, and was allegedly offered for sale for over Rs 5 lakh.

The Joint CSIR UGC-NET is conducted to determine the eligibility of Indian nationals for the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), Assistant Professor positions, and PhD admissions in accordance with the eligibility criteria of UGC.

NET is conducted to determine the eligibility for the post of assistant professors as well as JRF in Indian universities and colleges.

NCET is conducted for admission to the four-year Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) in select Central and state universities or institutions, including IITs, NITs, RIEs, and government colleges.