About UGC NET JRF

What is UGC NET JRF?

UCG NET JRF exam is a national level exam conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) twice in a year on the behalf of University Grants Commission (UGC) for determining the eligibility for the post of Assistant Professor and/or Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) or both award in Indian universities and colleges. NTA has been established by the Government of India as a premier and autonomous organization to conduct entrance exams for admission/ fellowship in higher educational institutions. The agency has been given the responsibility to conduct popular exams like UGC NET, JEE Main, NEET, CMAT, and GPAT.

Candidates holding a post graduation degree with maximum age 30 years are eligibile to appear in UGC NET exam. UGC follows the Government of India's reservation policy, as per which a minimum of 27%, 10%, 15%, 7.5% and 5% of fellowships are reserved for the OBC (non-creamy layer), EWS, SC, ST and persons with disabilities (PWD).

UCG NET JRF Exam Highlights

What are the benefits of qualifying UGC NET JRF exam?

There are many universities and colleges who demand for UGC NET JRF qualified candidates for the post of Assistant Professor. After qualifying UGC NET JRF exam, candidates are able to:

• Become an Assistant Professor/ Lecturer in any of the UGC Approved Universities.
• Become a Research Fellow, Project Assistant or Research Analyst in any of the prestigious organization, universities or laboratories.
• Apply for highly reputed Public-Sector Organizations in India.
• Become an Entrepreneur.
• Publish your own research.
• Become an author or a NET faculty.
• Start teaching Undergraduate or Post Graduate students or educational professionals.
• Become a guest faculty in universities and institutes.
• Work as a lab assistant.
• Become a consultant or a counselor etc.

The vocation options are not limited to JRF and Assistant Professor only. There are number of career destinations for the UGC NET JRF Qualified candidates.

Additional Benefits Are:

• Candidates who have cleared the UGC NET JRF exam, then they are exempted from PhD. entrance exam and have to appear just for the interview, if they decide to do PhD. in future.
• Financial assistance: The candidates who get admission in the M.Phil./Phd degree courses after qualifying UGC NET become eligible to receive financial assistance under JRF scheme for 2 years. This period can be extended for a further period of 3 years under the increased emoluments of the Senior Research Fellow (SRF) after the evaluation of candidate's research work by experts.
• Assistant Professors in private colleges may or may not be NET qualified but NET qualification is mandatory for universities & government colleges.
• The Assistant Professor in universities & government colleges is governed under 7th pay Commission with entry pay of ₹ 57,700 excluding HRA, DA and other allowances making it one of the highest paying government job with 3% of annual increment.
• PSUs can use UGC-NET scores for the recruitment process of the posts of executives in their organizations in disciplines like science (R&D), management, corporate communications, human resources, and finance.

UGC NET JRF Selection Process

UGC NET JRF selection process includes the following steps:

• UGC NET JRF application form: For UGC NET JRF registrations, candidates can fill the application form in online mode on the official website of the exam
• UGC NET JRF admit card: After successful registrations, candidates can download their UGC NET JRF admit cardby logging in to their registered accounts
• UGC NET JRF exam: Candidates need to appear for UGC NET exam. UGC NET JRF is a computer-based test that consists of two papers - I and II. Both the papers contain objective-type questions that candidates need to complete in duration of 3 hours.
• UGC NET JRF result: UGC NET JRF result is declared by NTA on its official website as per the prescribed schedule. The result contains the roll number and status (qualified for Assistant Professor only or both JRF and Assistant Professor) of candidates qualifying the National Eligibility Test. 

UGC NET JRF Background

Till 2017, UGC NET was conducted as a pen-and-paper based test. However, now the exam is conducted as a Computer-Based Test (CBT) only. NTA is conducting the UGC National Eligibility Test from December 2018 onwards but before 2018, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducted the UGC NET exam. As per the press-release by Indian Government, the exam will be conducted twice a year June month and December month, and it will be conducted in an online mode instead of offline mode by NTA.