Education ministry cancels UGC-NET 2024 held on 18 June

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has cancelled the UGC-NET exam held on Tuesday, 18 June. It was conducted in two shifts in OMR (optical mark recognition) i.e. pen and paper mode.

On Wednesday, 19 June, the University Grants Commission (UGC) reportedly received inputs about irregularities in the examination from the Indian Cyber ​​Crime Coordination Centre of the ministry of home affairs.

Following this input, the ministry of education decided to cancel the exam to ensure transparency of the examination process, and to conduct it afresh, information about which will be shared separately. The Centre has also handed over the matter to the CBI for investigation, according to reports.

The UGC-NET exam is held for PhD admissions, junior research fellowship (JRF) and assistant professor posts in universities across the country. On Tuesday, the exam was held in OMR mode for 83 subjects in two shifts on the same day. The first shift was from 9.30 am-12.30 pm, and the second from 3.00-6.00 pm.

Earlier, the UGC-NET exam was an online CBT, or computer-based test. The change was made so that the exam could be conducted on the same day for all subjects and all centres, including remote centres.

The NTA is already surrounded by allegations regarding the NEET-UG 2024 exam, multiple cases regarding which are pending in the Supreme Court, which has issued a notice of two weeks to the NTA. The next hearing in the matter is scheduled for 8 July.

About 20,000 students had filed petitions in different states across the country regarding the NEET-UG 2024, complaining of irregularities in the examination. In petitions filed against the awarding of 'grace marks', it was alleged that the NTA has not yet revealed what method they adopted to award grace marks to certain students.

At the same time, there was no mention of the provision of grace marks in the information bulletin issued by the NTA before the exam. In such a situation, awarding grace marks to some candidates has become a contentious issue.