‘Qualification norms changed after publication of result’
A group of candidates, who appeared for the National Eligibility Test (NET) of the University Grants Commission, are preparing to move the Court against an alleged post-result alteration of the Test’s qualification norms by the Commission.
The NET results were published on September 18. After the publication of the results, the Commission allegedly altered the Test’s qualification norms by mandating that candidates in the general category score an aggregate of 65 per cent for all three of the NET’s papers to become eligible for lectureship.
For OBC, SC/ST
The corresponding figure for the OBC category is 60 per cent and that of the SC/ST category is 55 per cent.
Bincy Verghese, who wrote the NET for Malayalam language, told The Hindu here on Wednesday that in the original notification of the UGC it was specified that candidates in the general category should score at least 40 per cent for papers one and two and 50 per cent for paper three to be eligible for consideration for the final preparation of the result.
“There was no aggregate mentioned. I, for instance have scored 62 each for papers one and two and 98 for paper three. According to the original UGC notification, anyone in the general category who scores 155, would become eligible for consideration for the final result. Now, only those with 65 per cent or 227.5 marks will make the cut. I have not qualified. This new criterion was made known to us only after the publication of the results. Already about 30 candidates have come together to file a court case,” she explained.
In the same manner, a candidate in the OBC category who need have scored only 138 marks now needs 210 marks to qualify.
New qualification
For the SC/ST category, the new qualification cut-off will be 192.5 as against the earlier specified 130. Papers one and two have a maximum of 100 marks and paper three, 150. However, the ‘Scheme of Test’ link in the UGC’s National Educational Testing Bureau’s website also mentions that “…the final qualifying criteria for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Eligibility for Lectureship shall be decided by the UGC before the publication of (the) result.”
In answer to a query from the University of Kerala on this issue on Wednesday, a senior UGC official reportedly explained that the final qualification cut-off arrived at by the UGC was in relation to the top scores in each paper.
This information is confidential and this was why it was not published earlier.
No change
There was no post-result alteration of any norm, the official reportedly added.
Despite repeated attempts, the Deputy Secretary of the National Educational Testing Division Surender Singh could not be reached for comment.
Keywords: National Eligibility Test, UGC NET results, lectureship
The UGC is bound to clarify to the affected candidates the reason for
raising the cut off mark for lectureship since it is only an eligibility
test not a test for recruitment.
Being a general candidate I lost the chance for getting Lecturership eventhough I scored 64%
The step taken by UGC is very unfair. They can't raise the cut off
criteria suddenly from 50 to 65% for general merits. Of course they
might have mentioned in the notification but 15% difference is not a
small difference and it's very inhumane. They need to inform it before
hand and not after the declaration of results. At least they can bring
down the cut off criteria. We all surely need to organize and fight
against this injustice. My humble request to 'The Hindu' to consider
this and voice against anti-democratic nature of UGC. We all will give
our support undoubtedly..
UGC/NET is a lot easier compared to exams like GATE. CSIR conducts NET exams more earnestly. That should not be the case. This time, it is said that due to change in question pattern, and since the same question paper is distributed to all in an exam hall, there was a lot of opportunity for applicants to copy from each other.
"Only such candidates who obtain the minimum required marks in each Paper, separately, as mentioned above, will be considered for final preparation of result.
However, the final qualifying criteria for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Eligibility for Lectureship shall be decided by UGC before declaration of result."
Thus the above statement says eligibility will be decided not published before delclaring the result. And even if it is published before result how will the result of students depend on that?
i want to know what is the base of preparing the merit of different subjects in ugc-net, as all subject have different scoring pattern. plz somebody explain this.
The UGC took the decision that the publication of the results, the
Commission allegedly altered the Test’s qualification norms by mandating
that candidates in the general category score an aggregate of 65 per
cent for all three of the NET’s papers to become eligible for
lectureship. Decision taken by NET bureau is wrong, anti democratic and
unfair for net aspirants. All affected candidates are requested to come
forward for oppose the decision.
There is no point in blaming UGC.It has made clear that the final cut off will be made later ccording to its discretion and is based on the preliminary criteria and after all its a National Level exam.Please read the notification and understand it clearly.
UGC must and should calculate subject wise cut off marks or whatever
criteria UGC feel good keeping in concern science students(computer
science and electronics science) and give equal priority to all subjects
.In All national level Exam like Gate,CSIR NET and others there is
subject wise cut-off then why not in UGC NET Exam.So your kind attention
is required toward this issue.
It was the responsibility of UGC to inform the candidates about the changed criteria in the notification itself. It is not our fault that many students passed with earlier criteria. UGC can change criteria with prior notification. But,nw UGC is doing injustice to many aspirants. Even the criterion they adopted was also alarming. How can they raise the cut off aggregate to this much higher percentage without a prior notice. We all agree that the final discretion is with UGC only,but we request the authorities not to play with our lives like this...either make the criteria applicable from next time onwards or pls reduce the aggregate percentage...UGC NET is for humanistic subjects..so please bring a humanistic appoach to this issue..
it is very obious that a candidate should know the criteria of examination before appearing in it.criteria declared before examination can not be change after the examination as ugc has done in NET EXAM.THIS IS NOT FARE.
The UGC made everything transparent(even allowed to take the carbon copy
of the OMR answer sheet).But this one is a surprise move,and it is an
absolute mistake from the part of UGC.This never happens in other
educated countries.The UGC has to do some more homework.
UGC has not changed NET qualification Norms. Your kind attention is invited to the following lines in original notification of UGC NET:
"Only such candidates who obtain the minimum required marks in each Paper, separately, as mentioned above, will be considered for final preparation of result.
However, the final qualifying criteria for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Eligibility for Lectureship shall be decided by UGC before declaration of result."
It will be fine if The Hindu takes this issue seriously and provide
needful follow-ups so that UGC will understand the stress of the
candidates who have been affected due to this sudden change and UGC
might reduce the cutoff score.
I think that an unified action is required all across India. I was informed that the applicants (they are not students!) from Tamilnadu are knocking at the door of High Court here. How do we meet and discuss the unified strategy?
Vijayalakshmi (9445517037)
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