UGC-NET Paper Leak: No Plans To Conduct In-House PhD Entrance Test, Says DU

The Delhi University (DU) on Sunday announced that it has no plans conduct separate PhD entrance exams and the varsity is awaiting guidance from the University Grants Commission (UGC) on the matter of PhD admissions.
“We have no plans to hold a separate in-house PhD entrance exam. We will follow whatever UGC suggests. We have not received any communication from the NTA and are awaiting their guidance. We expect the academic session for PhD to be delayed by a month,” DU Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh told news agency ANI.
Singh was responding to queries on whether the DU was planning to conduct its in-house entrance test for PhD admissions in wake of the controversy surrounding the UGC-NET exam which was cancelled by the Centre following alleged paper leaks ahead of the test.
Uncertainty has clouded the PhD admissions since the UGC-NET exam paper leak controversy prompted the Centre to cancel the test. The UGG-NET exam, which is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), determines eligibility for teaching positions and PhD admissions.
Notably, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is considering abandoning the UGC-NET exam for PhD admissions and reverting to an in-house entrance test for PhD admissions in wake of the controversy. However, this year, the JNU said it would accept the National Eligibility Test (NET) scores instead of conducting its own entrance test, in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
On June 19, the Centre cancelled the UGC-NET exam after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) raised concerns about the integrity of the examination.
Earlier, the UGC, in a notification dated March 27, 2024, decided that from the academic session 2024-25, the NET score could be used for PhD admissions in place of entrance tests conducted by various universities and higher education institutions (HEIs).
The UGC-NET, conducted by the NTA in Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode since December 2018, determines eligibility for Assistant Professorship and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in Indian universities and colleges. The award of JRF or eligibility for Assistant Professorship depends on the aggregate performance in Paper-I and Paper-II of the UGC NET.
(With ANI inputs)