Fast forward to teaching & research

Sanjay Arora

The aphorism attributed to George Bernard Shaw, “He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches,” no longer has credence among intellectuals and common people alike. Teaching in a university or a college along with research is considered as one of the most satisfying careers and has perhaps the best work-life balance.

So, if you have decided to become a college or a university teacher, your best bet is to appear in UGC-NET exam and get a reasonable score. All those students who qualify this exam are deemed as NET qualified and become eligible to apply for lectureship in any university across the nation.

Exam pattern

The National Eligibility Test (NET) is conducted on behalf of University Grants Commission (UGC), for determining the eligibility for Assistant Professor only or Junior Research Fellowship & Assistant Professor both for admission/ job  in Indian Universities and Colleges.

Till June 2018, the Central Board  of Secondary Education conducted the NET in 84 subjects at 91 selected Cities of spread across the country. December 2018 onwards, the UGC-NET is being conducted by the NTA. National Testing Agency (NTA)  is an Indian government agency that has been approved by the Union Council of Ministers and established in November 2017 to conduct entrance examinations for higher educational institutions. 

The award of JRF and or Eligibility for Assistant Professor depends on the total  performance of the candidate in Paper-I and paper-II of UGC-NET. The candidates qualifying only for Assistant Professor are not considered for the award of JRF. 

10,34,872 candidates will be appearing in one of the almost 100 subjects along with the General paper 1  in an examination conducted in Computer Based Test (CBT) mode. 

Commerce has  maximum number of registered candidate i.e  1,11,667. It is followed by English (74,770 candidates) and Hindi (71,140 candidates).

The scheme of evaluation

Paper 1 

Paper 1 is the same for all the candidates. It is y designed to test reasoning ability, comprehension, divergent thinking and general awareness of the candidate. It has 50 questions of 2 marks each. Candidates are examined for cognitive abilities, which include comprehension, analysis, evaluation, understanding the structure of arguments, deductive and inductive reasoning. It includes questions on general awareness about teaching and learning processes in higher education system. 

Units of Paper 1

I Teaching Aptitude II Research Aptitude III Comprehension

IV Communication V Mathematical Reasoning VI Logical Reasoning

VII Data Interpretation VIII Information and Communication Technology (ICT IX and X People, Development and Environment and  Higher Education System.

Five questions each carrying 2 marks are to be set from each Module.

Paper 2 

It is conducted in different subjects - for 2019 December exams, the number of subjects is 101.  Candidates are always advised to appear in the subject of their Post-Graduation only. The candidates, whose Post Graduation subject is not covered in the list of NET subjects attached in the Official Notification, may appear in a related subject as available site https://ugcnet.nta.nic.in/. It consists of 100 questions of 2 marks each covering domain knowledge. 

As per the revised exam pattern of UGC NET exam, there is no negative marking for incorrect answer either in Paper 1 or Paper 2.

NET AND SET

The candidates who have cleared the States Eligibility Test (SET) accredited by UGC for Assistant Professor held prior to December 1, 2002, are exempted from appearing in NET, and are eligible to apply for Assistant Professor anywhere in India. For SET held from December 1, 2002 onwards, the qualified candidates are eligible to apply for the post of Assistant Professor only in the universities/colleges situated in the state from where they have cleared their SET.

JRF/SRF-PhD vs Lectureship

Clearing NET-LS makes you eligible for lectureship and this qualification doesn't expire after five years. It has a life time validity. You can use it to apply for teaching positions anywhere within the country, at any point of time.

Qualifying NET-JRF gives you two added benefits — exemption from most research entrance exams in India as well as full financial support for your research work, be it  in pursuit of MPhil or PhD

Since a research degree like PhD generally takes 5 years for completion, the normal tenure of this fellowship has been fixed at five years. You will work as a JRF for the initial two years, after which you can apply for up-gradation from JRF to SRF.

The current rate of fellowship stands at Rs 31,000 and Rs 35,000 for JRF and SRF, respectively, and this doesn’t  include HRA and contingency allowance. That means you will be getting around Rs 20 lakh in 5 years’ time.

After the Exam

The NTA will display Provisional Answer Key of the questions on the NTA website www.ntanet.nic.in to provide an opportunity to the candidates to challenge the Provisional Answer Key. The Answer Keys are likely to be displayed for two to three days.

Two Papers

The writer is Chief Mentor, Maven Career Coaching.