UGC-NET
Determines eligibility for Assistant Professor posts in Indian universities and colleges, award of the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF, ₹37,000/month), and since 2024 also serves as a qualifying score for PhD admissions.
Eligibility
Master's degree with at least 55% marks (50% for OBC-NCL/SC/ST/PwD/third gender) in a NET subject; final-year postgraduate students may apply. Candidates with a 4-year undergraduate degree with 75% or above can also appear for the JRF and PhD-admission categories. For JRF the upper age is 30 years (relaxable by up to 5 years for reserved categories and women); there is no age limit or attempt cap for the Assistant Professor and PhD-admission categories.
Age limit: JRF: 30 years maximum (up to 5 years' relaxation for reserved categories and women); no age limit for Assistant Professor / PhD-admission categories
Exam pattern
Computer-Based Test (CBT) held as a single 3-hour session with no break between papers. Paper 1 (common for all): 50 questions of 2 marks each on teaching and research aptitude — 100 marks. Paper 2 (chosen subject, 87 subjects; Statistics and Forestry added from June 2026): 100 questions of 2 marks each — 200 marks. All questions are multiple-choice with no negative marking. Results are declared in three slabs: JRF plus Assistant Professor, Assistant Professor plus PhD admission, and PhD admission only; qualification is percentile-based within each subject, with roughly the top 6% of appeared candidates qualifying.
Syllabus at a glance
Paper 1 covers ten units: teaching aptitude, research aptitude, comprehension, communication, mathematical reasoning, logical reasoning, data interpretation, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), people–development–environment, and the higher education system. Paper 2 is a full postgraduate-level syllabus of the chosen subject — from Commerce, English and History to Computer Science, Law, Education and Management — published subject-wise by NTA.
Upcoming dates
| Event | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| June 2026 provisional answer key | 15–20 July 2026 | expected |
| June 2026 result and cut-offs | First week of Aug 2026 | expected |
| December 2026 notification | Oct 2026 | expected |
| December 2026 application window | Oct – Nov 2026 | expected |
| December 2026 exam | Late Dec 2026 – early Jan 2027 | expected |
Expected dates follow the usual calendar; confirm on the official notification before planning.
Free prep material
Standard books
- NTA UGC NET/SET/JRF Paper 1: Teaching and Research Aptitude — KVS Madaan (Pearson)
- Trueman's UGC NET/SET General Paper 1 — M. Gagan & Sajit Kumar
- NTA UGC NET/JRF/SET Paper 1 — Arihant Experts
- UGC NET Paper 1 Previous Years' Solved Papers — Disha Experts
- Subject-wise Trueman's / Arihant UGC NET volume for your Paper 2 subject
How toppers play it
- With no negative marking, attempt all 150 questions across both papers — every blank is a wasted expected mark.
- Paper 1 is the score multiplier: teaching aptitude, research methodology, ICT and the higher-education system are finite, highly repetitive topics where 80+/100 is achievable and often decides JRF versus mere qualification.
- The 3-hour session has no sectional timing — budget roughly 1 hour for Paper 1 and 2 hours for Paper 2, and bank the easy Paper 1 marks first.
- Qualification is percentile-based within your subject, so track your subject's past cut-offs: JRF typically demands a substantially higher score than the Assistant Professor slab.
- Work through the last 8–10 sessions of official previous papers — NTA recycles concepts heavily, especially in Paper 1 logical reasoning and data interpretation.