NTA to reconduct UGC-NET for English, Sociology, Commerce papers as audit finds factual, translation errors

NTA will re-conduct UGC-NET June 2026 exam for Sociology, English, Commerce papers (Express Photo/Representational)

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has decided to re-conduct the UGC-NET June 2026 examination for three subjects — English, Commerce and Sociology — after a committee found multiple errors in the question papers. The re-examination will be conducted in September, with no additional examination fee charged from candidates who appeared for these three papers.

According to the NTA, an internal committee’s findings recorded the three papers containing factual, typographical and translation errors. These included misspelled names of prominent scholars, incorrect or garbled book titles, errors in the wording of questions, grammatical mistakes, gender and number agreement errors, punctuation errors and non-standard terms for established concepts. The committee also found that a significant number of questions had been repeated from previous examinations.

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The committee recommended that the three papers be conducted again to ensure a fair and error-free examination. NTA said the extent of the defects could not be addressed simply by dropping questions during the answer key challenge process.

UGC NET June 2026 re-examination schedule

Subject	Date	Shift	Timing
English	September 9, 2026	Shift 1	9 AM to 12 noon
Commerce	September 9, 2026	Shift 2	3 PM to 6 PM
Sociology	September 10, 2026	Shift 1	9 AM to 12 noon

NTA will separately announce details regarding the examination city, examination centre and admit cards for the three re-conducted papers. Candidates will not have to pay any additional examination fee for the re-examination.

Results for 84 subjects to continue as scheduled

The re-examination will not delay the result process for the remaining 84 subjects for which the answer key challenge process has already been initiated. NTA said the results, allocation of JRF seats and issuance of e-certificates for eligibility for Assistant Professor and PhD admission for these subjects will be processed as scheduled.

For the three subjects being re-conducted, NTA said the number of candidates qualifying for Assistant Professor eligibility will be based on 6% of the candidates who appeared in the June examination or the re-examination, whichever is higher. Subject-wise allocation for JRF, Assistant Professor and PhD eligibility will also be carried out as prescribed in the UGC-NET Information Bulletin.

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The UGC-NET June 2026 examination was conducted from June 22 to 30 across 87 subjects for the award of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), eligibility for Assistant Professor and admission to PhD programmes. NTA said it received several complaints regarding errors in the English, Commerce and Sociology papers and subsequently constituted a committee to examine the issues.