Announcement of re-examination of 3 subjects of UGC NET: NTA issued official notice

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has taken a big and important decision for the lakhs of candidates who appeared in the University Grants Commission’s National Eligibility Test i.e. UGC-NET June 2026 session. The agency has officially announced that out of the total 87 subjects included in the examination, three major subjects—English, Commerce and Sociology—The examination of question papers will be re-conducted.

As per the official public notice issued by NTA on 16 August 2026, this re-examination will be held in the upcoming 9th and 10th September 2026 It will be conducted in Computer Based Test (CBT) mode at designated examination centers across the country. Candidates who have appeared for these three subjects in the June session will be given an opportunity to appear in the examination again and for this no extra examination fee of any kind will be charged from the candidates.

Re-exam time table for September 9 and 10: Complete details of subjects, dates and shifts

NTA has released the detailed schedule of subject wise shifts and timings for both the days, so that students can streamline their preparation:

• English (English – Subject Code):

  
  

  • test date: 9 September 2026 (Wednesday)

  • Shift: First Shift (Shift 1)

  • Time: 9:00 am to 12:00 noon (total 3 hours)

• Commerce / Commerce (Commerce – Subject Code):

  
  

  • test date: 9 September 2026 (Wednesday)

  • Shift: Second Shift (Shift 2)

  • Time: 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM (Total 3 hours)

• Sociology – Subject Code:

  
  

  • test date: 10 September 2026 (Thursday)

  • Shift: First Shift (Shift 1)

  • Time: 9:00 am to 12:00 noon (total 3 hours)

Why did the need for re-exam arise? Serious flaws revealed in the investigation of the expert committee

UGC-NET June 2026 Main Examination was conducted from 22 to 30 June 2026 for 87 subjects across the country. After the completion of the examination, hundreds of candidates and subject experts had lodged serious complaints regarding the question papers of English, Commerce and Sociology. The students alleged that there were huge factual and linguistic errors in the papers.

Considering the seriousness of these complaints, NTA had constituted an independent expert review committee of high level subject experts. When the committee conducted a thorough audit of the master question papers of all three subjects, several shocking discrepancies came to light:

• Factual and typographical errors: The names of famous philosophers, sociologists and economists were written with wrong spellings in the question papers. Major changes and grammatical errors were found in the titles of the books.

• Huge confusion in translation: The English to Hindi translation used non-standard and made-up words for many established concepts, making it impossible for Hindi medium students to understand the true meaning of the questions.

• Excessive repetition of old questions: The committee found that many questions from previous years were simply repeated without any changes.

• Solution not possible through challenge process: The committee clearly concluded that the scale of these mistakes was so large that a fair assessment could not be made merely by a simple ‘answer-key challenge’ or by dropping a few questions. Therefore, to ensure justice to all the candidates, the only transparent way was to cancel the entire examination and conduct it again.

What will be the impact on the results of remaining 84 subjects? NTA gave clarification

Amidst the decision to re-conduct the examination of three subjects, lakhs of candidates of the remaining 84 subjects were worried about the delay in the results. NTA has completely clarified its position on this:

• Result of 84 subjects on time: NTA has released the provisional answer keys of 84 subjects on 16th August itself. The agency has clarified that the re-exam of English, Commerce and Sociology will not have any impact on the evaluation and result process of other 84 subjects. Their results will be declared as per the pre-determined time limit.

• Provisional answer keys of three subjects were withheld: Since the examination of these three subjects is being held again, their answer key for the June session has been withdrawn and the final result will be released only after the re-test to be held in September.

Special rule of qualifying criteria: Relief to students on 6% formula

NTA has implemented a special and liberal rule for qualifying criteria in the interest of students appearing for re-examination:

• Generally the top 6% of the total candidates appearing in the examination are declared qualified for eligibility for Assistant Professor and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF).

• For these three subjects, NTA has decided that the total number of candidates who appeared in June 2026 or the number of candidates who appeared in the September re-exam will be –Whichever number is higher6% qualifying slots will be calculated based on that.

• This will give the students the benefit that even if for some reason the attendance in the re-exam is less, there will be no reduction in the number of qualifying seats.

Admit Card and Exam City Slip: When and how will you be able to download it?

The process regarding examination centre, city and issuance of new admit cards for the candidates appearing in re-exam will start soon:

• Exam City Intimation Slip: About 7 to 10 days before the exam date (last week of August) NTA will activate the City Intimation Slip on the official portal, through which candidates will be able to see the information of their allotted exam city.

• New Admit Card: New admit cards for re-exam will be issued in the first week of September (approximately 5th or 6th September 2026). Old June session admit cards will not be valid for this examination.

• Allotment of Examination Centre: NTA has clarified that candidates should not assume that their examination center will remain the same as it was in June; A new center may be allotted based on administrative arrangements and availability of centres.

Easy step-by-step process to download admit card

Once released, candidates will be able to download their new admit card by following these easy steps:

• First of all go to the official website of UGC NET ugcnet.nta.ac.in or nta.ac.in.

• displayed on homepage “UGC NET June 2026: Re-Exam Admit Card for English, Commerce & Sociology” Click on the active link.

• Enter your Application Number, Date of Birth and Security PIN given on the screen.

• As soon as you click on the ‘Submit’ button, your new admit card will open on the screen.

• Carefully check your name, roll number, exam center address, shift and reporting time mentioned in the admit card.

• Take a colored printout of the admit card for the day of examination and read the instructions carefully.

Important advice for candidates: Keep an eye on the helpline and official updates

NTA has strictly advised all concerned candidates not to believe any unauthorized rumor or misleading information spread on social media and to consider only the information released on the official websites (ugcnet.nta.ac.in and nta.ac.in) as authentic.

If any candidate faces any technical issue in exam schedule, subject selection or downloading the admit card, they can contact the official helpdesk number of NTA. 011-40759000 or email [email protected] You can contact directly. This examination to be held on 9th and 10th September will prove to be a transparent opportunity for thousands of serious researchers and future professors of the affected subjects to prove their talent in an impeccable and fair environment.