UGC NET 2021 Dates: Exam in May; check details for application process

The National Eligibility Test (NET) will be held between May 2 to 17, 2021. Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Tuesday announced the dates for the first UGC NET exam for the current year conducted by the National Testing Agency.

The online applications for the computer-based exam for junior research fellowship and assistant professor eligibility have begun on nta.ac.in or ugcnet.nta.nic.in. Candidates can register latest by May 2 and the last date for fee payment is March 3.

The exams will be held on 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 17 May 2021. The Test will comprise of two papers i.e Paper I is of 100 marks and paper II of 200 marks. The papers will be held between 9 am and 6 pm in two shifts, each of three hours.

Candidates who are not more than 31 years as on March 01 is eligible for JRF for the general category. Age relaxation is available for the reserved categories candidate. There is no upper age limit in applying for UGC-NET for Assistant Professor.

Candidates who clear the exam will be eligible for applying for Junior Research Fellowship programme or recruitment at colleges and universities across India for the post of Assistant Professor.

Examinees can utilise NTA’s newly launched mobile app called the “National Test Abhyas” – to take mock tests for UGC-NET and other exams under the NTA’s purview as their Test-Practice Centers (TPCs) were closed during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

UGC NET is conducted twice a year. However last year, due to the pandemic the exam was conducted only once in September and ran through November 2020 to cover all the subjects. The December exams were postponed and hence this year the exam dates were advanced to May.

NTA released the results and cut-off of UGC NET 2020 exams in December.