24/07/2014
NEW DELHI: The eligibility examination forcollege and university lectureship, the National Eligibility Test (NET), will no longer be conducted by the University Grants Commission. The examination, which has been conducted since 1989, for entry-level teaching jobs in the country's higher education institutions will now be administered and conducted by theCentral Board of Secondary Education.A decision to this effect was taken at the meeting of the University GrantsCommissionheld on Tuesday. The CBSE will conduct theNETexamination scheduled to be held in December.The decision for theUGCto outsource the NET has been on the cards for a while. TheCBSE, which conducts several entrance examinations for engineering and medical undergraduate programmes besides the school leaving exams, was chosen for the purpose. A senior official said that given the CBSE's proven record in conducting competitive examinations on a large scale,the UGC decided it would delegate the taskof conducting and administering the NET to it.However, the CBSE has no experience of administering a post graduate level examination. To this end, the UGC has decided to share its resources with the CBSE.The NET examination is conducted in 80 subjects and the questions are geared for the post-graduate student. As many as 20,000 applicants appear for the examination, which is conducted twice a year in June and December. The NET, which was introduced by a government notification in 1988, was instituted to ensure minimum standards for the entrants in the teaching profession and research.At its meeting on Tuesday, the UGC also decided to ask the human resource development ministry for an extension forthe July 31 deadline on the working out a course of action for the 41 deemed to be universities that were adjudged as unfit to continue operations by thePN Tandon Committeeset up in 2009.On the basis of the Supreme Court's direction, the UGC had constituted a four member committee headed by H Devaraj, Vice-Chairman, UGC to assess whether these 41 institutions could continue to operate. All the institutions have made their presentations, but the committee was unable to arrive at a consensus. Sources said that there were differences of opinion on the approach that the committee should take in assessing these 41 institution.Two members were of the view that the final assessment should be in line with the findings of the Tandon Committee and a committee of officials that had been set upsubsequently. The other two members were not in agreement with this approach and were of the opinion that their assessment should be independent of the findings of the previous committee.Other members of the committee areSanjay DhandeandV.S. Chauhan, both members of the UGC andAmita Sharma,Additional Secretary, ministry of human resource development. The committee was to submit its report by July 31. The UGC has decided to approach the ministry for more time to resolve the differences.
