Delhi University (DU) will not be conducting separate PhD entrance exams like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh told ANI. He added that the varsity is awaiting guidance from the University Grants Commission (UGC). The UGC had earlier cancelled the NET exam, which is held for admission into PhD programmes.

“We have no plans to hold a separate in-house PhD entrance exam. We will follow whatever UGC suggests. We have not received any communication from the NTA and are awaiting their guidance. We expect the academic session for PhD to be delayed by a month,” Singh told the news agency.

Conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), this year’s UGC NET was cancelled following reports of NEET UG paper leak surfaced.

Meanwhile, according to the news agency, JNU is considering conducting a separate PhD entrance exam this year instead of accepting UGC NET scores. Earlier this year, JNU had announced it would conduct the PhD admissions via the National Eligibility Test (NET) scores.

On March 27, the UGC announced that scores of NET will be valid for PhD admissions from the 2024-25 academic session. Several varsities conduct separate PhD entrance tests due to which candidates are required to write multiple exams. To streamline the process, UGC decided to make scores secured at the national-level entrance exam NET valid for PhD admissions.

NET is conducted twice a year, in June and December, to award Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and to select Assistant Professors for those with master’s degrees. With the new announcement, UGC NET qualified candidates will be eligible for three categories including PhD admission with JRF and assistant professor posts; PhD admission without JRF and for assistant professor posts; and only for PhD programme admission. However, candidates must note that for creating a merit list for PhD admissions, 70 per cent weightage will be given to the UGC NET scores and the remaining 30 per cent to interviews.

Stay ahead with all the exam results updates on News18 Website.