UGC-NET December 2026: Exam Dates Revised, Form Closes 28 October

If you live in Assam, all four of your exam city choices will be in the state. The updated bulletin limits the choice to the state of your permanent or present address, and Assam has five centres: Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Silchar and Tezpur. When we opened the application page from ugcnet.nta.nic.in on 24 October 2026, it was live, with a login for registered candidates beside the new registration button. For the science subjects, see our CSIR-UGC NET December 2026 post. Its exam days (19, 22 and 27 December) don’t clash with the revised UGC-NET dates. More tests are in our admission section.

What the 16 October Corrigendum Changed

• Exam dates: 14 to 18 December and 21 December 2026. The first bulletin had 14 to 19 December, with 20 and 21 December held as buffer days. NTA will publish the subject-wise schedule separately.
• City slip and admit card: both now have dates. The exam city slip comes out on 23 November and the admit card on 7 December.
• Marked for review: a question you answered and marked for review will now be evaluated. A question you left blank still won’t be, marked or not.
• Pen: one will be given at the centre, so you don’t need to bring your own.

Where the first and the updated bulletin disagree, the updated one dated 16 October counts.

₹1,150, ₹600 or ₹325, and ₹500 More After 28 October

Category	Fee by 28 October	Fee from 29 to 31 October
General/Unreserved	₹1,150	₹1,650
General-EWS, OBC-NCL	₹600	₹1,100
SC, ST, PwD, third gender	₹325	₹825

The late column is our sum: NTA adds a flat ₹500 to every category’s fee. Payment by card, net banking or UPI has to go through by 11:50 PM on the last day. The OBC-NCL rate and age relaxation follow the central OBC list, so an Assam state OBC certificate alone may not be enough. Our caste certificate guide explains how to get one.

Who Can Sit, and the JRF Age Cut-Off

• A master’s degree with at least 55% (50% for OBC-NCL, SC, ST, PwD/PwBD and third gender candidates). Final-year master’s students can apply, but they qualify only after passing with those marks.
• A four-year bachelor’s degree with 75% (5% relaxation for reserved categories) also lets you sit. NET cleared on a four-year degree counts for JRF and PhD admission only, not for Assistant Professor posts.
• For JRF you must be no more than 30 years old on 1 December 2026. Women and OBC-NCL, SC, ST, PwD and third gender candidates get up to five years more, LL.M. holders three years, and research or armed forces service can add up to five, with a combined cap of five years. Check your age on that date with the age calculator.
• For Assistant Professor or PhD admission alone there is no upper age limit.

Sit the subject of your master’s. If it isn’t among the 87 NET subjects, NTA allows a related one.

Two Papers, Three Hours, No Break

Paper	Questions	Marks	What it tests
Paper 1	50	100	Teaching and research aptitude, reasoning, reading comprehension, general awareness
Paper 2	100	200	Your chosen subject

Both papers are multiple choice and run back to back in one 180-minute sitting. Questions come in English and Hindi, except for language papers. NTA doesn’t hand out the syllabus. Download it from the UGC site linked below.

Filling the Form

1. Register at ugcnet.nta.nic.in and note the application number the system gives you. Only one application per candidate is allowed.
2. Pick four exam cities in order of preference. NTA tries to follow your order but can give you a different city.
3. Take a live photograph through the form, then upload a recent photo (10 KB to 200 KB, face and ears visible on a white background, no mask) and your signature (10 KB to 50 KB). The image resizer gets both into range.
4. Pay the fee and download the confirmation page.

Use your own email and mobile number or a parent’s, because the city slip and admit card news reach you only there. If you get something wrong, the correction window runs from 2 to 4 November, up to 11:50 PM.