New Delhi:The union minister of state for Human Resources Development (HRD), Dr. Satya Pal Singh, Monday told the Lok Sabha that the UGC has informed that it has made some changes in the examination pattern for the UGC-NET-2018 examinations.

The changes are made considering the recommendations made by the sub-committee constituted after it was decided by the NET Review Committee regarding exam pattern and age limit for candidates appearing in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), UGC-NET, 2018.

  • The first two papers continue to be of objective type with multiple choice questions. The first paper of General Awareness consists of 50 compulsory questions of two marks each. The choice of 10 questions in Paper-I has been done away with. The duration of Paper-I has been reduced from the present 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour. The paper continues to be of 100 marks.
  • Paper-II and Paper-III are both of the same discipline have been merged together to  be termed as Paper-II containing 100 compulsory objective type questions of two marks each from the subject selected by the candidate with two hours duration.
  • The upper age limit for appearing in JRF has been raised by two years,  from the existing upper age limit of 28 years to 30 years. There is five years relaxation in age for candidates belonging to Schedule Caste/Schedule Tribe/ Persons with Disabilities/ Other Backward Class (Non-Creamy Layer) categories and for women candidates.

The minister said in a written reply that the changes approved by the Commission have been intimated to CBSE in January, this year. He said that the UGC has informed that UGC-NET examination will be conducted twice a year.