UGC-NET Retest: No Reduction in Qualifying Candidates, NTA Sources Say

UGC-NET retest: Qualifying candidates, subject-wise allocations won't be reduced: NTA sources

New Delhi, August 17

The re-test will be conducted at no additional fee, with the National Testing Agency (NTA) assuring candidates that the corrective exercise will not adversely affect the number of candidates qualifying in the three subjects or their subject-wise allocations, sources told ANI.

The NTA has decided to re-conduct the UGC-NET papers for English, Commerce and Sociology after a committee constituted by the agency found multiple errors in the question papers. The move comes amid growing criticism of the agency's handling of competitive examinations and protests by student groups, including NSUI, SFI and AISA.

Sources said the corrections were being made "in the overall interest of candidates" and to reinforce the foundation of a more accountable examination system.

"The re-test is being held at no additional fee, and the number of qualifying candidates and the subject-wise allocations for those subjects will not be reduced on account of the re-test," sources said.

The agency is using the episode to strengthen procedures at various stages of question paper preparation, including setting, moderating, translating and composing the papers. It is also examining ways to fix responsibility for the lapses that occurred, sources said.

"The NTA is also reviewing its internal processes and protocols to ensure that such errors are addressed and prevented in future," it added.

The decision to conduct the re-test followed several complaints received by the NTA regarding errors in the three papers. The agency subsequently constituted a committee to examine the complaints.

According to the NTA, the committee found "many factual, typographical, translation errors" in the three papers. These included misspelt names of prominent scholars, garbled book titles, errors in the wording of questions, grammatical errors, gender and number agreement errors, punctuation mistakes and non-standard coined terms for established concepts.

The committee also found that a significant number of questions had been repeated from examinations conducted previously. It recommended that the three papers be re-conducted in the interest of holding a fair and error-free examination.

The UGC-NET is conducted to determine eligibility for appointment as Assistant Professors, admission to PhD programmes and award of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in government and private universities.

The UGC-NET 2026 examination was conducted in June across 87 subjects. The NTA had also faced criticism over the delay in releasing the answer key, which was released on Sunday.

The latest controversy comes months after the NTA cancelled the NEET-UG 2026 examination following a paper leak, triggering nationwide protests and putting the agency under intense public scrutiny. The protests, with their epicentre at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, eventually led to the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

— ANI