According to the NTA, a committee’s findings recorded the three papers containing factual, typographical and translation errors. (File Photo)The National Testing Agency on Sunday announced that it will re-conduct the UGC-NET June 2026 examinations in English, Commerce, and Sociology subjects after a committee found that the three question papers contained many factual, typographical, and translation errors and a significant number of questions repeated from previous examinations, concluding that the papers did not meet the standards of a “fair and error-free examination”.In its notice, the NTA clarified that the re-tests will be conducted on September 9-10, with no additional examination fee charged from candidates who appeared for these three subjects. The English paper will be held on September 9 from 9 am to 12 noon in Shift 1, while the Commerce paper will be conducted the same day from 3 pm to 6 pm in Shift 2. The Sociology paper will be held on September 10 from 9 am to 12 noon in Shift 1.According to the NTA, a committee’s findings recorded the three papers containing factual, typographical and translation errors. These included misspelled names of prominent scholars, incorrect or garbled book titles, errors in the wording of questions, grammatical mistakes, gender and number agreement errors, punctuation errors and non-standard terms for established concepts. The committee also found that a significant number of questions had been repeated from previous examinations.The decision follows complaints from candidates after the original UGC-NET examination, conducted from June 22 to 30 across 87 subjects. The examination determines eligibility for Junior Research Fellowships and Assistant Professor positions and is also used for admission to PhD programmes.Also Read | NTA releases answer keys for UGC-NET, Joint CSIR-NET June 2026The latest UGC-NET controversy comes at a particularly difficult moment for the National Testing Agency, which has faced mounting questions over the reliability and capacity of the body that conducts some of India’s most consequential examinations. The NEET-UG paper leak controversy led to protests by students in several states.Although the nature of allegations in this particular UGC-NET are different from a paper leak, this adds to a series of disruptions that have dogged the UGC-NET in recent years. In June 2024, the government cancelled the examination, saying it had received inputs indicating that its integrity may have been compromised.Story continues below this adOn Sunday, the agency said: “NTA concluded that papers carrying such defects do not meet the standards of fairness and error-free examination.”For the other 84 subjects in the June 2026 examination, however, the process will continue without interruption. The NTA said results for those subjects would be declared on schedule and that the allocation of Junior Research Fellowship seats and the issuance of eligibility certificates for Assistant Professor positions and PhD admissions would not be delayed by the retest.The agency has also set a floor for the number of candidates who can qualify for Assistant Professor eligibility in the three affected subjects. The number will be equal to 6 per cent of the candidates who appeared in the original June examination or the retest, whichever is higher.The NTA said the allocation of JRF seats, Assistant Professor eligibility and PhD eligibility in the three subjects would be carried out according to the examination’s information bulletin. Numbers already allocated to each subject, it said, would not be reduced after the retest.