The Centre has cancelled the UGC NET exam, which was required for admission to PhD programs. The cancellation came amid concerns about the exam’s integrity.
Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh remarked on Sunday that Delhi University (DU) has no intentions to run separate PhD entry exams, like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) does.
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The ambiguity surrounding PhD admissions developed after the Centre discontinued the UGC NET exam, which was required for enrollment into PhD programs. The UGC NET exam, administered by the National Testing Agency (NTA), establishes eligibility for teaching employment and PhD entrance.
“There are no intentions to conduct a separate in-house PhD entrance exam. We shall do whatever the UGC says. We have not received any communication from the NTA and are waiting for their instructions. We expect the PhD academic session to be postponed by one month,” he told ANI.
Singh’s remarks were in response to questions about whether DU intended to hold its own entrance exam following the issue surrounding the NTA’s UGC NET exam.
On June 19, the Centre cancelled the exam after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) expressed concerns about its integrity.
Meanwhile, JNU is considering ditching the UGC NET exam for PhD admissions in favor of an in-house entrance test. JNU declared this year that it will accept National Eligibility Test (NET) scores rather than administering its own entrance exam, in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
In a notification dated March 27, 2024, the UGC determined that beginning with the academic year 2024-25, the NET score might be used for PhD admissions instead of entrance tests administered by various universities and higher education institutes (HEIs).
The NTA has been conducting the UGC NET in Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode since December 2018, to evaluate eligibility for Assistant Professorship and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in Indian universities and colleges. The award of JRF or eligibility for Assistant Professorship is based on the combined performance in Papers I and II of the UGC NET.