The National Eligibility Test (NET) also known as UGC NET or NTA-UGC-NET, is a test to determine eligibility for college and university level lectureship and for the award of Junior Research Fellowship JRF (Hereinafter referred as ‘JRF’) for Indian nationals.
The UGC is a body constituted by virtue of the provisions contained in the University Grants Commission (Hereinafter referred as ‘UGC’) Act for co-ordination and determination of the standards in institutions for Higher Education. In exercise of the powers conferred under the said statute, the UGC issued Regulations on minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in Universities and Colleges. As per these regulations, only candidates who qualify the National Eligibility Test are eligible for appointment as Assistant Professor in Universities and Colleges.
The UGC policy of declaring only 6% of those candidates who appear in both the papers of UGC National Eligibility Test (Hereinafter referred as ‘NET’) and obtain minimum qualifying marks in aggregate of both the papers is unconstitutional as it is arbitrary, unreasonable and not satisfying the test of reasonableness under Article 14 of the Constitution. Previously, UGC allowed total 15 percent of those candidates who appear in National Eligibility Test exam to be NET qualified. The present criteria of only allowing 6% candidates to be declared as passed in NET in all streams is defeating the purpose of UGC- NET which aims at checking the “eligibility” only to be an Assistant Professor in India; it is not a Competitive Exam. Merely clearing this exam does not ensure a post for Assistant Professor as this exam is just an eligibility Test and does not result in any sure job thereafter, unlike clearing IAS, PCS or Judiciary Exams.
There is a minimum required score prescribed by UGC NET Eligibility exam (40% for general candidates and 35 % for unreserved candidates), but UGC makes a merit list and only 6% of those candidates who appear in both the papers and obtain minimum qualifying marks in aggregate of both the papers are considered as NET qualified. This is not the case in the Bar Council of India Exam i.e. All India Bar Exam, AIBE, which is an eligibility test and open book exam for determining the eligibility of lawyers to practice in courts. AIBE prescribes minimum 40% score to clear the exam as it is just a qualifying/eligibility test exam and not a competitive exam. All those who score the minimum marks are eligible.
NET is conducted twice a year which makes a total of 12% candidates clear in a year. This percentage is problematic because lakhs of candidates appear every year and UGC may be earning in crores (approximately 6 lakh candidates appeared in UGC NET 2018, with fees for the general category being Rs. 800 ) which means the government is earning in crores.
Because of the 6% criteria, this exam is lost its relevance of being an eligibility test to test the knowledge of the candidate in a particular subject. The number of candidates appeared for both papers in UGC NET, 2018 was 6,81,930, covering 101 subjects. The exam was conducted at 598 centres in 91 cities. Out of the 6,81,930 candidates of all streams, 44,001 candidates cleared NET and 3883 cleared NET with JRF. JRF is a fellowship program offered by the government to assist projects and do PhD simultaneously, to those who clear the NET exam with merit.
Due to just 6% selection of candidates in UGC NET, presently, there is a dearth of a sufficient number of candidates for appointment to the post of Assistant Professor in universities and colleges across India.
The analysis of the NET result, December 2018 shows that percentage criteria for becoming an assistant professor in different streams for the exam of NET are:
| 45-50% : History , Bengali, Marathi, Nepali, Konkani, Santali, Gujarati |
| 51-55%: Tamil, Telugu, Political Science, Commerce, Education, Home Science, Management, Odia, Punjabi, English, Manipuri, French, Japanese, physical Education, Indian Culture, Library and Information Science, Mass Communication and Journalism, Museology and Conservation, Tribal and Regional Language Literature, Folk Literature, Sanskrit Traditional subjects, Electronic sciences and environmental sciences, Tourism Administration and Management, Bodo, Karnatik Music (vocal instrument), Computer science and application and Rabindra Sangeet |
| 56-60%: Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Social work, Defence and Strategic Studies, Public Administration, Hindi , Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Urdu, linguistics, Assamese, Spanish, Rajasthani, Labour welfare and personnel management, Dance, archaeology, comparative literature, visual art, geography, social medicine and community, forensic science, pali, Kashmiri, percussion instrument and Dogri |
| 61-65%: Philosophy, Anthropology, Population studies, Hindustani music (vocal instrument), Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Persian , German, Adult education continuing education, Arab culture and Islamic studies, Law, Buddhist Jaina Gandhian and Peace, Comparative study of religions, Women studies International and area studies, Human rights and duties, Drama Theatre, Yoga and Sindhi |
| 65-70%: Maithili |
| 71-77: Criminology, Prakrit |
The analysis of NET result December exam, 2018 clearly shows that there is different cut off percentage for various streams and applying the same formula of clearing only 6% candidates in all streams is not justified for all streams since different subjects have different cut off marks. Previously 15% of candidates out of total candidates were declared successful. Interestingly the UGC bulletin for NET exam 2018 clearly provides for the condition of “Both JRF and Assistant Professor” as only 40% aggregate marks in both the papers taken together for general candidates and 35% aggregate marks in both the papers for reserved candidates to be UGC NET qualified. The UGC is marking merit out of the total number of candidates, despite the fact that minimum score for general candidates is 40% and it is 35% for candidates belonging to the members of SC and ST community. This also makes it a competitive exam, thereby diluting its real purpose which is to check the eligibility. The policy of clearing only 6% candidates for NET is clearly a policy which needs to be quashed on the ground of irrational and arbitrary and not satisfying the test of reasonableness as prescribed under Article 14 of the constitution.
It is to be noted that the different cut off marks for different prominent competitive exams conducted by Union Public Service Commission are as follows:
| Exam | Marks secured by last finally recommended candidate |
| Naval Defense Academy and Naval Academy Examination (I), 2018 | 705 out of 1800 Percent cutoff: 39.16 |
| Indian Economic Service Examination | 608 out of 1200 Percent cutoff: 50.66 |
| Indian Statistical Examination, 2018 | 567 out of 1200 Percent cut off: 47.25 |
| Delhi Judicial Service Main Exam, 2018 | 447 out of 850 Percent cut off: 52.58 |
The problem also arises when even the Junior Research Fellowship is awarded from this 6% result. It is a common trend of this exam that people who clear NET exam try for NET Junior Research Fellowship; and, being a NET qualified person spoils one seat of NET aspirants since UGC does not have a separate mechanism to compete for NET JRF Fellowship.