COMMENTARY

UGC-NET June 2012

Inbuilt Conict
Anil Singh

The University Grants Commission has stirred a hornets nest by amending the qualifying criteria after the National Eligibility Test that was held in June 2012. This brief comment looks at some of the relevant issues that have been raised by students across the country.

Anil Singh (dr.anilsingh5@gmail.com) is with the Library and Documentation Division, NCERT, New Delhi.

he University Grants Commission (UGC) conducts a combined National Eligibility Test (NET) for postgraduate students twice a year to award Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs) and confer eligibility for lectureship in universities and colleges in 94 subjects related to the humanities, commerce and languages, and allied subjects. Till December 2011, the UGC-NET exam comprised three papers. Papers I and II were objective, while paper III was descriptive. At the 482nd meeting of the UGC held on 22 December 2011, the commission considered relaxing the marks for physically challenged candidates in the NET and decided that the category-wise qualifying criteria may be xed as given in Table 2 (p 31). During the discussion, the commission also deliberated issues related to objectivity in valuing paper III, transparency, reducing inter- and intraexaminer variations, delays in declaration of the NET results, and recommendations
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of the NET moderation committees to make paper III objective on the pattern of Council of Scientic and Industrial Research (CSIR)-NET examination where all three papers are of the objective type. The commission decided that paper III would be converted into an objective type from June 2012. There were 5,71,627 candidates for the UGC-NET exam held on 24 June 2012. Of these, 3,625 qualied for JRFs and 40,332 for lectureship (total 43,957). A large number of teaching aspirants who appeared for this exam were disappointed with the commissions decision to change the qualifying criteria after the result was declared. According to the UGC notication for the June 2012 exam, anyone who scored 155 marks in the general category, 137.5 in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category, and 130 in the scheduled caste (SC)/scheduled tribe (ST)/physically handicapped (PH)/visually handicapped (VH) category would have been eligible for JRFs or to become lecturers. But now only those with an aggregate of 65% in the general category, 60% in the OBC category, and 55% in the SC/ST/PH/VH category make the cut-off. As a result, a number of candidates in various parts of the country have gone
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COMMENTARY

to court or are planning to le writ petitions challenging the result published by the UGC. There are a few critical issues that have been raised by students from all over India, which the UGC would do well to ponder. (1) Up to the December 2011 NET exam, the UGCs qualifying criteria for lectureship were 50% in papers I and II, and 45% in paper III. For the JRF, it was 55% (Table 1). Then why did the UGC increase this to an overall aggregate of 65%? It has set a high percentage just because it wants to reduce the number of NET-qualied candidates. As decided at the 482nd meeting, rather than relaxing the marks for PH/VH, the cut-off has been increased.
Category Paper I Paper II

eligible for the JRF. The second was for the examination held on 28 December 2008, in which 143 more candidates were awarded the JRF. (4) The UGC-NET exam is not like other entrance exams where only limited seats are available and it is necessary to declare what the cut-off will be in accordance with the available seats. The NET is only a qualifying exam that makes a candidate eligible to apply to universities and colleges in India for lectureship. (5) For the rst time, candidates are highlighting the possibility of malpractices in the NET. Candidates from Kerala for 24 June 2012 NET believe that the failure of many of them to get through

Table 4: Number of Candidates Qualified in UGC-NET from 2006 to 2012

Year Date of Exam JRF Lectureship Total

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

25-6-2006 17-12-2006 24-6-2007 30-12-2007 29-6-2008 28-12-2008 28-6-2009 27-12-2009 27-6-2010 26-12-2010 26-6-2011 24-12-2011 24-6-2012

452 417 448 448 897 1,060 2,140 2,116 3,242 3,238 3,392 3,237 3,625

6,468 4,850 5,345 5,483 5,373 5,509 7,388 1,074 3,991 9,689 8,504 10,622 40,332

6,920 5,267 5,793 5,931 6,270 6,569 9,528 3,190 7,233 12,927 11,896 13,859 43,957

Table 1: Category-wise Qualifying Criteria for NET as Per UGCs Notification (up to December 2011)
Minimum Qualifying Marks Paper I + II Paper III (Lectureship) Paper III (JRF)

General OBC SC/ST/PH/VH

40 (40) 35 (35) 35 (35)

40 (40) 35 (35) 35 (35)

100 (50) 90 (45) 80 (40)

90 (45) 80 (40) 70 (35)

100 (55) 90 (45) 80 (40)

Figures in brackets are in per cent.

(2) The UGC released score cards that do not mention if someone has passed or failed. Recruiters have to decide to act in accordance with the scores, as with the Common Admission Test (CAT). Suppose many candidates pass the intermediate or senior secondary examination, do the school boards suddenly increase the cutoff to curtail the numbers who pass? No, because they know that passing this examination only makes one eligible for further higher education.
Table 2: Category-wise Qualifying Criteria for NET as Per UGCs Notification June 2012
Category Minimum Qualifying Marks Paper I Paper II Paper III

may have been because of massive irregularities. For example, more than 6,000 candidates of management qualied in the examination. Of these, 1,253 candidates were from Uttar Pradesh
Table 3: Category-wise Aggregate Qualifying Cut-off Criteria Decided by UGC before and after Declaring the Result
Category Minimum Qualifying Marks Pre-Result Declaration Post-Result (I+II+III) Declaration

The UGC has every right to decide what the cut-off should be but its decision should not be arbitrary. There is no doubt that we need talented and research-oriented candidates in higher education. Talent is not always reected by marks. It is the sum of knowledge, intelligence, hard work, commitment, and a passion for academic work. The best way to attract talent in higher education is to offer opportunities within a few months of the postgraduate examination results.
References
Biyani, A K (2011): NET: Inbuilt Conict, Current Science, Vol 101(12), p 1520. Jose, Jomy (2012): File Your Complaints about UGC-NET, http://lislinks.com/forum/topics/, accessed on 5 October 2012. Protest Against UGC, http://www.protestagainstugc.blogspot.in/, accessed on 5 October 2012. Shrangi, Vatsala (2012): New Qualifying Criteria Disappoints Many NET Aspirants, http://articles.timesondia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-08/ news/34321907_1_net-aspirants-ugc-websitejunior-research-fellowship, Times of India, accessed on 10 October 2012. University Grants Commission, New Delhi (2012): http://www.ugc.ac.in, accessed on 5 October 2012.

General 155 (44.28) OBC (non-creamy layer) 137.5 (39.28) SC/ST/PH/VH 130 (37.14)
Figures in brackets are in per cent.

227.5 (65) 210 (60) 192.5 (55)

General OBC SC/ST/PH/VH

40 (40) 35 (35) 35 (35)

40 (40) 35 (35) 35 (35)

75 (50) 67.5 (45) 60 (40)

Figures in brackets are in per cent.

(3) Generally, a rst class (60%) is considered enough for faculty members by all universities. If the UGC reduces the cut-off to 60% for the general category, 55% for the OBC category, and 50% for the SC/ST/PH/VH category, it will certainly increase the number of qualied candidates but it will not dilute the standard and purpose of the UGC-NET exam. In previous years, the UGC has published supplementary results two times. The rst time was for the examination held on 29 June 2008 in which an additional 430 candidates were made
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who had opted for history as their subject. The gures for Kerala and Tamil Nadu in this category were 10 and 5 respectively. In Rajasthan and New Delhi, the number of candidates who cleared the exam was 500 and 254 respectively. (6) Candidates in south India fared poorly in the history stream with just three students clearing the test in Karnataka. The gures were ve for West Bengal and three for Gujarat. Some centres recorded abnormally high success rates. Though only 43,957 candidates cleared the test all over India, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi had 5,009 successful candidates. From Allahabad University, 4,443 candidates cleared the test, while 3,071 did so from Rajasthan University.
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