MHRD-UGC’s New Assaults Ahead

June-July 2017 NET Skipped! NET to be Conducted Only Once a Year!

Biannual NET-JRF Exam Scuttled in a Clandestine Manner!

Cap for NET Qualification Reduced from 15% to 6%!

Possible Scuttling of Reservation! Number of Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs) to Drastically Reduce!

In a clandestine manner the scope of NET and JRF qualification is being drastically reduced by the UGC and MHRD. Each year lakhs of students, from all over, work hard to prepare and sit for the NET as it is a decisive threshold in determining the eligibility for teaching position of Assistant Professor in Indian universities and colleges and also for obtaining JRF for pursuing higher research. But now, there seems to be a break in the practice of conducting NET twice in a year. CBSE had earlier expressed its unwillingness to conduct the NET exam twice a year as has been so far. After a protest from the student community, the UGC released a press statement saying that the CBSE has been asked to conduct NET exam in July 2017. But to our utter shock, the notification published by CBSE dated 6^th June declares that NET exam will be held on 19^th November 2017. That means the NET exam scheduled for July2017 is being effectively skipped. It is extremely unfortunate that the UGC after releasing press statements of conducting July NET has now withdrawn from accountability. The entire student community and lakhs of future aspirants have been betrayed.

In this context, we have also been informed of the alarming move by the UGC towards reducing the number of students qualifying in a Net exam. It has been reported in news papers that the UGC has decided to reduce the cap of students qualifying for NET to 6%. Till the NET exam conducted in January, 2017, 15% of the eligible students were issued NET qualification.

Qualifying NET exam merely confers eligibility to apply for the post for Assistant Professor. And those who qualify the JRF as well become eligible for Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs) only if they manage to get admitted to any UGC recognized research program in universities/institutions. In other words, NET and the JRF do not automatically guarantee either appointment in teaching posts or receiving fellowship. NET-JRF is merely a qualifying examination and the candidates have to go through further examination/interviews at respective institutions/universities to get appointment as faculty or admitted as research students. Why then the UGC is trying to reduce the number of NET qualifying students? Indeed, UGC has no explanation or accountability of this arbitrary trimming down. On the contrary, the move will gravely scuttle the opportunities of the students trying for teaching profession or aspiring to pursue higher research.

Firstly, this restrictive 6% cap will deny thousands of students the opportunity of even applying for the posts of Assistant Professors.
Secondly, it appears that the dual move of scuttling biannual exam and the 6% cap are being implemented to cut-down the number of Junior Research Fellowships in a clandestine manner. As the JRF forms only a fraction of the number of NET qualification, with much less number of students qualifying for NET every year, the number of Junior Research Fellowship will also decrease. It is becoming clear that UGC’s latest moves are nothing but yet another attempt to impose FELLOWSHIP-CUT in higher education in a surreptitious manner.

We have seen how the UGC have earlier tried to cut down Non-NET fellowships in 2015 and then imposed the restrictive cap of student-supervisor ratio through the 5 May 2016 UGC notification to restrict admission to post graduate research.

Thirdly, with the 2^nd June 2017 UGC notification that proposes to make NET qualification a mandatory criterion for enrollment in PhD in category-3 universities (a major chunk of the colleges/ universities in our country come under this category), this 6% cap and scuttling of biannual exam are bound to further shrink the scope of research for hundreds of students.
Fourthly, it is not even clear to the student community as to how the reservation policy and the provision for relaxation in eligibility for SC/ST, OBC and PH/VH students would be applicable with this restriction of 6%.

We demand

Immediate restoration of the Biannual Cycle of UGC NET exam – it must be ensured that the NET exam is held twice a year as per the existing norm. Since the current notification for the next NET exam has been declared for November 17^th, the schedule for the July exam must be declared without any further ambiguous declarations and statements.
The UGC must come out with a clear official notification published in its website and in mass media confirming the biannual NET as enough tricks have been played to shirk responsibility of conducting the exam as per norms.
The UGC must also guarantee that the number of Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs) is not reduced. A clearly stated notification issued by the UGC must come in this regard as well.
Revoke the restrictive 6% cap for qualifying the UGC NET. Expand rather than reduce the scope and opportunity of the number of students trying for teaching profession or aspiring to pursue higher research.