NEW DELHI, June 21: Amidst the huge paper leak row in other competitive examinations, the National Testing Agency on Friday announced indefinite postponement of the joint CSIR-UGC-NET examination, scheduled between Tuesday and Thursday next week.
The testing agency, in a circular, said the exam had been postponed due to “unavoidable circumstances as well as logistic issues.” The revised schedule for the conduct of this examination will be announced later through the official website, it said.
Joint CSIR UGC NET is conducted for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Lectureship (LS) and Assistant Professors’ posts in Indian universities and colleges subject to fulfilling the eligibility criteria laid down by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The Ministry of Education cancelled the UGC-NET exam on Wednesday, just a day after it was held, citing “integrity of the exam may have been compromised.”
“On 19th June, 2024, the University Grants Commission (UGC) received certain inputs from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs on the Examination. These inputs prima-facie indicate that the integrity of the aforesaid examination may have been compromised,” the Ministry of Education said in a release.
The decision to cancel the UGC-NET examinations led to widespread discontent among the student community, with many alleging irregularities in the examinations conducted by the NTA. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, under fire for the irregularities in NEET and the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam, and announced formation of a high-level committee to probe into the matter.
(Manas Dasgupta)