HRD ministry backs CBSE to conduct UGC-NET once a year, professors likely to get salary hike

The NET exam is held for post graduate students to test their eligibility for junior research fellowship and assistant professorship in Universities. HRD Ministry has informed the CBSE that there is currently no proposal to change the format of the exam.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has made several changes to the National Eligibility Test (NET) of the University Grant’s Commission (UGC).The changes made by the CBSE have become a matter of concern for thousands of applicants taking part in the test. It has been confirmed that the exam, which was proposed to be scrapped, will be organised this year. The CBSE will conduct the exam just once every year, in fact. The exam is currently held twice every year in July and December. The NET exam is held for post graduate students to test their eligibility for junior research fellowship and assistant professorship in Universities. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has informed the CBSE that there is currently no proposal to change the format of the exam, according to an india.com report.

Salary Hike: The panel’s recommendation of Union Grant Commission (UGC) for the hike of salaries of the Professors and support staff of Government colleges is likely to be accepted. As per sources, the hike is expected to be in the range of 22 to 28 per cent.

“UGC is likely to hike the salary of professors and support staff of government colleges.Sources have said that the pay hike is likely to be in the neighbourhood of 22 percent to 28 percent. According to the proposal, the entry pay for an assistant professor will increase by Rs 10,396 with a grade pay of Rs 6,000 and the pay of associate professor would be increased by Rs 23,662. As per the recommendations the pay of Vice Chancellors,which is currently Rs 1,75,200 will be hiked by Rs 49,800. Salaries of University teaching staff have not been increased since 2006, as per the report.”

Single Attempt Only: One major change has been proposed to conduct UGC NET Exam once a year. Due to the overburden of other major competitive exam, CBSE will now conduct CBSE UGC NET Exam one time, which was earlier held bi-annually across all the examination centres.

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Last News : 22/05/2017 (Reported by LiveMint) – Negating opposition from UGC, HRD ministry agrees to a proposal to conduct NET once a year instead of twice as prevalent for years.

Negating opposition from the University Grants Commission (UGC), the human resource development (HRD) ministry has agreed to a proposal to conduct the National Eligibility Test (NET) once a year instead of twice as prevalent for years.

“We have a fixed number of people. UGC-NET exam is conducted for more than 80 subjects and preparation for each round of the exam needs nearly five months. Two rounds of NET takes almost 10 months of the calendar and effectively hampers our efforts in other areas especially the school regulation and observation which is our core function,” said a senior Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) official, requesting anonymity.

Qualification in UGC-NET is a must for recruitment of lecturers at colleges and universities.

CBSE chairman R.K. Chaturvedi had written to the HRD ministry seeking permission to conduct the UGC-NET exam once a year. “If you look at the number of students who apply and the number of students who sit for the exam, you will realise that the CBSE demand is not unfounded,” Chaturvedi said.

“While around 600,000 apply for the test each time, less than 40% write the exam. This defeats the purpose,” said the unnamed official cited above, adding that the HRD ministry has taken note of their proposal positively.

HRD minister Prakash Javadekar indicated as much. “The attendance in UGC-NET is very low. We will make a formal announcement (of making the exam an annual affair) soon,” the minister added.

For the first time in 33 years, UGC-NET was facing uncertainly after CBSE wrote to the HRD ministry earlier this year expressing its inability to conduct the exam. Last month CBSE agreed to conduct the exam after HRD ministry directed it to do so ending confusion for thousands of aspirants, Mint reported on 25 April.