National Eligibility Test (NET) Introduction Eligibility Examination Application Procedure Exam Date

Conducted by the University Grants Commission (UGC), National Eligibility Test (NET) is the national level entrance examination for postgraduate candidates. NET is conducted for determining the eligibility of Indian nationals for the Award of Junior Research Fellowships (JRF) and eligibility for Lectureship in various Indian universities and colleges. National Eligibility Test (NET) is conducted in 78 subjects at 74 selected university centres around the country. The Examination is conducted in Humanities (including languages), Social Sciences, Forensic Science, Environmental Sciences, Computer Science and Applications and Electronic Science.

The national level Test for determining the eligibility of candidates for the award of Junior Research Fellowship/Lectureship in Science subjects (Chemical Sciences; Mathematical Sciences and Earth, Atmospheric, Ocean & Planetary Sciences; Life Sciences; Physical Sciences) is conducted jointly with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi. The candidates in science subjects, desirous of availing UGC-JRF or obtaining eligibility for Lectureship in these subjects are advised to appear in the Joint CSIR-UGC Test for Junior Research Fellowship and Eligibility for Lectureship conducted by CSIR.

Candidates who qualify for the award of Junior Research Fellowship are eligible to pursue research in the subject of their post-graduation or in a related subject. The universities, institutions, IITs and other national organizations may select the JRF awardees for whole time research work in accordance with the procedure prescribed by them. The award of JRF will depend on the performance of the candidate in NET. The qualified candidates will also be eligible for Lectureship. However, the candidates qualifying exclusively for Lectureship will not be considered for award of JRF.

Candidates appearing in NET should clearly specify in the prescribed Application Form whether they are applying for both JRF & eligibility for Lectureship OR only for eligibility for Lectureship. Candidates who qualify the Test for eligibility for Lectureship will be governed by the rules and regulations for recruitment of Lecturers of the concerned universities/ colleges/ state governments, as the case may be. Scheduled Caste (SC)/ Scheduled Tribe (ST)/ Visually Handicapped(VH)/ Physically Handicapped (PH) candidates will be given such special concessions as may be decided by the Commission. Candidates qualifying for the award of Junior Research Fellowship will be eligible to receive fellowship of the UGC under various schemes, subject to finding their placement in universities/ IITs/ institutions. The validity period of the offer is one year w.e.f. the date of issue of JRF Award Letter. However, in case the candidates have already joined M.Phil/ Ph.D., the date of commencement of fellowship shall be from the date of declaration of NET result or date of their joining, whichever is later.

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The eligibility test at the national level may not be completely able to represent the subjects which are regional in their character. Moreover, the demand for enabling the candidates to appear for the Test in their own mother tongue was also being made. The state governments and union territories were, therefore, given the option of conducting their own Test for eligibility for Lectureship at the state level. Thus was born the concept of SET, i.e., State Eligibility Test for Lectureship Eligibility only. It is conducted both in English and the vernacular.