The postponement only pertains to the examination scheduled for Wednesday, while the exams slated for Thursday, January 16, will be held on the scheduled date.
The amended exam date of January 15 will be notified soon. The official notice regarding this update is available on the official website of UGC NET at ugcnet.nta.ac.in.
In an official notice, the NTA said, “The National Testing Agency has received representation to postpone the UGC-NET December 2024 examination on account of Pongal, Makar Sankranti, and other festivals on 15th January 2025.
“In the interest of aspirants, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has decided to postpone the UGC-NET December 2024 Exam scheduled on 15th January 2025 only. The new date of the exam will be announced later,” the statement read further.
UGC-NET December 2024 Examination scheduled on 15th January 2025, postponed. pic.twitter.com/4FhWMiZstq
— ANI (@ANI) January 14, 2025
The examinations for January 15 were earlier scheduled in two shifts, which include Sanskrit, Mass Communication and Journalism, Japanese, Performing Arts, Law, Nepali, Women Studies, Environmental Sciences (Shift 1) and Indian Knowledge System, Malayalam, Urdu, Labour Welfare, Electronic Science, Criminology, Tribal Literature, Folk Literature, and Konkani (Shift 2).
In December 2024, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Kanimozhi accused the central government of holding UGC-NET on Pongal.
In a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, he said, “It (Pongal) is deeply connected with the cultural identity of Tamils and conducting UGC-NET exams on that day would affect both the Pongal celebrations and exam preparations of the students from Tamil Nadu.”
“This is not mere negligence — it is a deliberate affront to our cultural heritage. Once again, the Union Government has exposed its blatant disregard for our state and its people,” the letter added.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts UGC-NET twice per year for the award of a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), appointment as assistant professor and admission to PhD courses.
