UGC Withdraws Decision Of Increasing Cut-off Marks

The issue between the UGC (University Grants Commission) and NET candidates have finally come to an end. Yes,on Friday, following a Supreme Court order in relief to the aspirants of NET the UGC has withdrawn its decision to increase the cut-off marks for clearing the NET.

The issue raised when the UGC has increased the eligibility scores by 15% without spreading a notice to its candidates. And hence students who have already applied for NET roared up and filed a petition against the act by UGC.

Including the cutoffs UGC had also made several changes in the month of June 2012, and the candidates were brought into light about the changes only when the UGC had announced it just a day before announcing the results of the exam on September 18, 2012.

The NET (National Eligibility Test) is is conducted by the National Educational Testing Bureau of the UGC, which determines the eligibility for lectureship and for awarding Junior research fellowship to ensure minimum standards for the entrants in the teaching profession and research.

Initially the notification said that, candidates belonging to the SC/ST sections needed 35, 35 and 60 marks respectively for qualifying papers 1, 2 and 3. And the marks to be obtained by the OBC's were set as 35, 35 and 68 and for those candidates belonging to General category it was 40, 40 and 75. But, when the results were announced, candidates who have been eligible as per the initial criteria failed to be qualified.

The sources revealed that, based on the new criteria, the percentage of marks to be scores by candidates belonging to different categories has been increased by 15%. And hence the petition was filed against UGC.

Finally, on Friday, the Supreme Court had issued an order saying that "The UGC's decision was invalid as it did not follow the exam policy in announcing the changes in cut-offs and that too, in such a short period of time". However, the decision was a relief to students of NET.

Please Note: This decision is applicable for those candidates who had attended the UGC NET June 2012 Examination too.