NTA Announces Fresh Dates For UGC-NET, NCET Amid Row Over Examination Irregularities

New Delhi: The National Testing Agency (NTA) has announced the new dates for the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) 2024 June session exam.

The NCET 2024 exam will be held on July 10. While the Joint CSIR UGC NET will conducted during July 25-27, the UGC NET June 2024 Cycle will be held between August 21 and September 4.

The exam for the June shift was conducted on June 18 in two shifts in over 317 cities and more than 9 lakh candidates appeared. However, the exam was cancelled on June 19 by the Ministry of Education claiming that the “integrity may have been compromised”.

The ministry received input about the alleged leak generated by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

It was discovered that the paper was leaked on June 16, just two days before the exam over the darknet and other encrypted social media channels and was sold for more than Rs 5 lakh.

The cancellation also affected the CSIR UGC NET exam scheduled for June 25-27, which was also postponed by the Education Ministry “as a matter of abundant precaution”.

In a shift from the earlier pattern, the exam was conducted in offline mode this year and on a single day. However, the rescheduled exam will be conducted according to the earlier pattern of Computer Based Test (CBT) spread across a fortnight.

UGC NET exam is conducted twice a year in June and December to decide the eligibility for assistant professor, grants Junior Research Fellowship and enrollment in PhD programmes in Indian university.

Meanwhile, the All India Ayush Post Graduate Entrance Test (AIAPGET) 2024 will be conducted on July 6, as scheduled earlier.

In the line of fire over the alleged irregularities in medical entrance examination NEET-UG and PhD entrance NET, the Centre had last week notified a panel to ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations through the NTA.