The Kashmir Pulse

SRINAGAR — To comply with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) expert committee in its 578th meeting has decided that the National Eligibility Test (NET) score can be used for admission to PhD programmes instead of entrance tests from the academic session 2024-25.

As per the news agency CNS, UGC in its public notice said, “The University Grants Commission conducts the National Eligibility Test (NET) through the National Testing Agency (NTA). The NET is conducted twice a year, in June and December. The NET scores are used (a) to award Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and (b) Assistant Professor for those with a Master’s degree.”

It further said that many universities conduct their entrance tests for admission to their PhD programmes, requiring the students to write multiple PhD entrance tests. To help the students with one national entrance test for PhD admissions as a part of implementing the National Education Policy 2020, the UGC constituted an expert committee to review the provisions of the National Eligibility Test (NET).

“Based on the expert committee's recommendations, in its 578th meeting held on March 13, 2024, the UGC has decided that from the academic session 2024-25, the NET score can be used for admission to PhD programmes in place of entrance tests conducted by the different universities/HEIs,” the UGC added in the public notice.

NEW DELHI — The next University Grants Commission (UGC)-National Eligibility Test (NET) 2022 exam will be conducted in the first or second week of June by this year, UGC Chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar informed on Sunday.

However, the date of the UGC-NET exam (for the merged cycles of December 2021 and June 2022) has not been disclosed yet. The exact schedule will be announced once NTA finalizes the dates.

Taking to Twitter, Kumar wrote “For the merged cycles of December 2021 and June 2022, the next UGC-NET will be conducted in the first/second week of June 2022. The exact schedule will be announced once NTA finalizes the dates.”

Once the dates are finalised, the complete schedule for NET will be released on UGC's official website. Interested candidates would be able to check the schedule by visiting ugc.ac.in.

It must be noted that UGC has released a notice regarding the awarding of degrees after the result declaration. In the notice, UGC has directed all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to award degrees to students within 180 days of result declaration. The rule applies to all Colleges and Universities that come under the ambit of HEIs, as per the UGC notification.

The notice read, "Needless to say, getting a Degree in time after having successfully completed a program is an inviolable privilege of a student. Considering the huge significance of this privilege, the Commission notified full-fledged regulation entitled UGC (Grant of Degrees and Other Awards by Universities) Regulations, 2008, the regulation 4.4 of which mandates that 'the Degree award date/s shall be within 180 days of the date/s by which the students are expected to qualify and become eligible for them.'"

This step has been taken as many students complained about the delay in getting their degree certificates which causes problems while pursuing higher education or seeking employment opportunities.

UGC will take "punitive actions as are notified in Regulation 9 of UGC (Grievance Redressal) Regulation 2012 against the universities failing to comply with the UGC regulations on the award of degree."

SRINAGAR — The government has issued a notification for the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) for students of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh under General stream courses.

University Grants Commission (UGC) has made CUET (Common University Entrance Examination) compulsory for admission in undergraduate programmes in all Central Universities from the academic session 2022-23.

National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct the exam in July 2022 for which the registration will commence on April 2, 2022, on the NTA portal.

All aspiring students of J&K and Ladakh desirous of availing the benefits of PMSSS should apply for registration and appear for CUET as and when conducted for admissions in Central Universities, State Universities, and other Private Universities for the academic session 2022-23.

All the students may visit the NTA portal and UGC website for detailed information.