The University of Delhi has announced that it will offer admission to PhD programs based on the National Eligibility Test (NET) score from the academic session 2024-25. The university said that the UGC NET score will be given 70% weightage and 30% weightage for the interview round.
Delhi University said that it may conduct a separate PhD entrance exam for courses that are not included in the UGC NET exam such as engineering, Portuguese, and Italian. On March 27, the University Grants Commission announced that the universities can use UGC NET scores to grant admission to PhD courses from this year on. The decision was made as per the recommendations made by an expert committee.
In the latest update, DU said that the admission under the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) will be conducted as per the UGC notification dated November 7, 2022. UGC NET 2024 is an eligibility test conducted to award JRF, eligibility for assistant professor. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has been holding the UGC NET exam since 2018.
| UGC NET | JRF | Assistant Professor | PhD admission |
| Category 1 – Award of JRF and appointment as assistant professor | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Category 2 – Appointment as assistant professor and PhD admission | No | Yes | Yes |
| Category 3 – Admission to PhD only | No | No | Yes |
The university said that students seeking admission should qualify in categories 2 and 3. As per the admission policy, 70% weightage will be given for test scores 30% weightage for the interview. The DU PhD admission 2024 will be based on the combined merit of NET marks and the marks obtained in the interview round. Further, it said that the NET score will be valid for one year for PhD admission.
In line with the recommendation, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Banaras Hindu University have also decided to admit students based on the NTA NET score. BHU clarified that there will be no separate entrance exam for PhD other than NET, CSIR-UGC NET. Although JNU faced opposition from students and teachers, it said that the NTA JNU PhD entrance exam will not be conducted from 2024.
