NTA UGC re-exam 2026: English, Commerce and Sociology Papers to Be Held Again

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has issued a public notice dated 16th August 2026 announcing the NTA UGC Re exam for three subjects, English, Commerce and Sociology, of the UGC-NET June 2026 examination. The original UGC-NET June 2026 examination was conducted from 22nd to 30th June 2026 across 87 subjects, for the award of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), eligibility for Assistant Professor, and admission to PhD programmes.

NTA is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India. Following several complaints regarding errors in the English, Commerce and Sociology papers, NTA formed a committee to look into the matter, which recommended that these three papers be re-conducted in the interest of a fair and error-free examination. No additional examination fee will be charged from candidates of these three subjects for the NTA UGC Re exam.

Also read: UGC-NET June 2026: Application Portal is now open; Know complete details and apply now

Reason for Re-conduct

• The committee constituted to examine all three papers conducted a detailed review and identified several deficiencies that raised concerns about the quality and reliability of the examination. The issues were not limited to minor printing mistakes but affected the clarity, accuracy and overall standard of the question papers.
• The committee found several factual, typographical and translation-related errors. These included misspelt names of prominent scholars and incorrectly translated or garbled book titles, which could create confusion about the scholars, works or concepts being referred to.
• Errors were also found in the wording of several question stems. In some cases, the questions were framed in a way that made it difficult for candidates to clearly understand what was being asked.
• The papers also contained numerous language-related problems, including grammatical errors, incorrect gender and number agreement, and punctuation mistakes. The committee considered the cumulative presence of these errors significant enough to affect the readability and quality of the examination.
• Another concern was the use of non-standard coined terms instead of established academic terminology. Such terminology could create ambiguity and lead candidates to interpret questions differently from what was intended.
• The committee also found that a significant number of questions had been repeated from previous examinations. This raised concerns regarding the originality and appropriateness of the affected papers.
• After considering these issues collectively, the NTA concluded that the defects could not be adequately resolved simply by dropping individual questions after the answer-key challenge process. The problems were considered sufficiently widespread to affect the fairness and reliability of the examination. Therefore, the affected papers were not considered to meet the required standard of a fair and error-free examination, leading the NTA to order a re-examination.

Paper Leak: Claims

Paper Leak: Claims

Claims of a paper leak further intensified doubts over the credibility and integrity of the examination. Although such claims attracted significant attention, they should be distinguished from the factual, grammatical, translation and repetition-related errors independently identified in the papers. The decision to conduct the NTA UGC re-exam was based on the committee’s finding that the affected papers did not meet the required standards of a fair examination, rather than serving as direct confirmation of a paper leak. Nevertheless, the controversy surrounding the NTA UGC re-exam highlighted wider concerns about the examination system, including question-paper quality, scrutiny mechanisms and the need for greater transparency from the NTA.

Re-Examination Schedule

The NTA UGC Re exam for the three affected subjects will be held as per the following schedule:

Further details regarding city, centre and admit card for the NTA UGC Re exam will be notified separately on the official website.

Result Processing

Results for the remaining 84 subjects, for which the answer key challenge process was already completed, will be declared as per the original schedule and will not be delayed on account of the NTA UGC Re exam. Allocation of JRF seats and issuance of e-certificates for Assistant Professor eligibility and PhD admission for these 84 subjects will also proceed without delay.

The number of candidates qualifying for Assistant Professor eligibility will be equal to 6% of the candidates who appeared in the June 2026 test or the re-test, whichever is higher. Subject-wise allocation for the three re-conducted subjects, for JRF, Assistant Professor eligibility and PhD admission, will be carried out as mentioned in the Information Bulletin, and numbers already allocated for each subject will not be reduced under any circumstances following the re-test.

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