Amidst NEET controversy, govt cancels UGC-NET; NTA under scanner

The Ministry of Education on Wednesday cancelled the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test or UGC NET 2024, which was conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday (June 18), citing that it may have been “compromised". The decision was taken based on inputs from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, which indicated that the "integrity of the exam was compromised". The ministry said that the matter will be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The announcement came a day after the UGC NET 2024 was conducted in two shifts across various cities on June 18.  The UGC conducts the NET exam twice a year for selection to positions of ‘Assistant Professor’ and ‘Junior Research Fellowship and Assistant Professor’ and for PhD admissions.

This decision comes at a time when NTA is already embroiled in a controversy over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), an entrance exam for medical and allied courses. The matter is currently under Supreme Court review.

“The Government is committed to ensuring the sanctity of examinations and protecting the interest of students,” said the Education Ministry in a post on social media platform X.

In the press release issued late on June 19, the ministry declared the conduction of fresh examinations. Details will be shared later. The matter would be subjected to an investigation by the CBI.

Unlike past years, the exam was conducted in an OMR (pen and paper) format. The June session of the exam was conducted at 1,205 Exam Centres in 317 cities across the country for 11,21,225 candidates.

On the NEET(UG) 2024 examination, the ministry claimed to have addressed the grace marks-related issues.