NEW DELHI, October 15 — The National Testing Agency (NTA), on behalf of the University Grant Commission (UGC), on Wednesday released the official Information Bulletin for the UGC NET December 2026 examination across 83 post-graduate disciplines on its designated portal ugcnet.nta.ac.in.
According to the testing schedule, the national eligibility test will be administered in multi-shift Computer Based Test (CBT) format to determine eligibility for 'Assistant Professorship', award of 'Junior Research Fellowship' (JRF), and direct doctoral admissions into premier universities. The online application window remains open from October 15 through November 8, 2026.
The examination structure comprises two non-stop composite sessions: Paper-I assessing general teaching aptitude, research ethics, mathematical reasoning, and data interpretation (50 questions, 100 marks), followed by Paper-II covering candidate-selected specialized disciplines (100 questions, 200 marks) with no negative marking penalties.
The statutory foundation of the University Grants Commission (constituted under the UGC Act 1956), the autonomous mandate of the National Testing Agency (established in 2017), the structure of academic doctoral funding in India, and higher education reforms under NEP 2020 are foundational concepts for UGC NET, CTET, and state civil service examinations.