New dates for postponed UGC-NET exam announced; check revised schedule here

CHENNAI: The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Wednesday announced the rescheduled dates for the UGC-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) December 2024 exam, which was due to be held on January 15. The exam was postponed due to Pongal, Makar Sakranti, and other festivals across the country.

The updated exam will now be held in single shifts on January 21 and 27.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and other political party leaders had raised concerns about conducting exams during the Pongal festival holidays, stating that it would cause difficulties for aspirants from the state. CM Stalin had urged the NTA to reconsider the dates, citing the example of the Chartered Accountants Foundation Examination, which had been rescheduled due to the same concern.

Following this, the NTA on January 13 announced the postponement of the exam.

Terming the NTA's decision as a rightful one, Stalin in a post on X slammed the 'practice' of scheduling exams on the days of Tamil festivals. "It has become a recurring practice for the Union Government to announce major exams on Tamil cultural festival days, only to reschedule them following state intervention," the Chief Minister wrote.

He also added, "Let us hope that, moving forward, every institution in this country respects its rich diversity and considers the sentiments of all its people when making decisions."

The UGC-NET exam for admission to PhD programmes, awarding Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and appointment as assistant professors was conducted on January 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The exam on January 16 is still on, the NTA confirmed.

The exam is being held for 85 subjects across disciplines in the Computer Based Test (CBT) mode.

The revised UGC-NET exam schedule is as follows:

The exam for the following subjects have been scheduled for January 21, 2025 from 9 am to 12 pm:

Indian Knowledge System

Malayalam

Urdu

Labour Welfare/ Personnel Management/ Industrial Relations/ Labour and Social Welfare/ Human Resource Management

Criminology

Tribal and Regional Language/ Literature

Folk Literature

Konkani

Environmental Sciences

The exam for the following subjects have been scheduled on January 27, 2025 from 3 pm to 6 pm:

Sanskrit

Mass Communication and Journalism

Japanese

Performing Art- Dance/Drama/ Theatre

Electronic Science

Women Studies

Law

Nepali

The NTA has said that the revised admit card will be displayed on the official website shortly.

(Visit ugcnet.nta.ac.in to download the admit card)