More than 15,000 National Eligibility Test (NET) candidates in the country, who were earlier declared ineligible for lecturership, have been declared qualified in the tough-to-crack examination after a review by a five-member committee constituted by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
On September 18, when the UGC declared the results of the NET conducted on June 24, only 40,332 candidates of the over 5.71 lakh were declared eligible for appointment as lecturers in colleges and universities in the country. Besides, 3,625 candidates had qualified for Junior Research Fellowship-cum-Lecturership.
However, thousands of other candidates who had scored the minimum eligibility marks in individual papers, originally prescribed by the UGC, were in for a rude shock as the agency had incorporated a new overall minimum aggregate score for passing the examination.
As per this, Open Competition category candidates had to score an aggregate of 65 per cent, OBC candidates 60 per cent and SC/ST candidates 55 per cent to clear the examination. Following a nationwide furore over the decision, the UGC constituted a five-member committee headed by V S Chauhan to revisit the NET result.
Acting on the committee’s recommendation restoring the original eligibility criteria, the UGC on Tuesday released the supplementary results announcing that 15,178 additional candidates have cleared the examination. This includes 1,685 candidates who have become eligible for JRF and 13,493 candidates have qualified for lecturership.
N R Sujith Soori, an assistant professor at a private college said, “Now, I am very happy that I have cleared the NET in my first attempt, as per the supplementary list.”