The UGC NET June 2026 cutoff for English and Commerce presents a mixed picture when compared with the two preceding cutoff cycles: June 2025 and December 2025.
The latest cutoff PDF released for the June 2026 examination shows that the movement was not uniform across subjects. English and Commerce recorded the same main-category cutoffs as December 2025, while Sociology saw some movement, particularly in the Assistant Professor and PhD-only categories.
For clarity, the comparison below uses the three latest cutoff datasets provided — June 2025, December 2025 and June 2026. It covers the five principal categories: Unreserved, OBC-NCL, EWS, SC and ST.
English saw a substantial increase between June 2025 and December 2025, but the cutoff then remained unchanged in June 2026.
For the Unreserved category, the JRF cutoff rose from 188 in June 2025 to 226 in December 2025, a 38-mark increase. The Assistant Professor cutoff increased from 166 to 198, while the PhD-only cutoff rose from 146 to 172. The June 2026 figures remained the same.
General Category (UR) English Cutoffs June 2026
| Session | JRF | Assistant Professor | PhD only |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 2025 | 188 | 166 | 146 |
| December 2025 | 226 | 198 | 172 |
| June 2026 | 226 | 198 | 172 |
| Change: June 2025 → June 2026 | 38 | 32 | 26 |
The same pattern is visible in the other major categories. For example, the OBC-NCL JRF cutoff increased from 176 in June 2025 to 214 in December 2025 and stayed at 214 in June 2026. The EWS JRF cutoff moved from 180 to 216, while SC and ST JRF cutoffs increased from 166 to 202 and 164 to 198, respectively.
In other words, the major movement in English happened between June and December 2025, not between December 2025 and June 2026.
The June 2025 Unreserved JRF cutoff was 224, which fell to 210 in December 2025. The June 2026 cutoff remained at 210. The Assistant Professor cutoff similarly moved from 194 in June 2025 to 182 in December 2025 and remained at 182 in June 2026. The PhD-only cutoff moved from 166 to 160 and then stayed at 160.
| Session | JRF | Assistant Professor | PhD only |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 2025 | 224 | 194 | 166 |
| December 2025 | 210 | 182 | 160 |
| June 2026 | 210 | 182 | 160 |
| Change: June 2025 → June 2026 | -14 | -12 | -6 |
The decline between June and December 2025 was also visible across the OBC-NCL, EWS, SC and ST categories. For instance, the OBC-NCL JRF cutoff moved from 212 to 198, while the EWS JRF cutoff went from 218 to 200. Both remained at those levels in June 2026.
So, for Commerce, the latest cutoff does not represent a fresh movement from the immediately preceding cycle. Instead, the December 2025 cutoff level was retained in June 2026.
Looking only at the two June cycles gives a clearer picture of how the cutoff has changed over one year.
| Subject | Category | JRF change | Assistant Professor change | PhD-only change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Unreserved | 38 | 32 | 26 |
| Commerce | Unreserved | -14 | -12 | -6 |
| Sociology | Unreserved | 12 | 14 | 12 |
NTA's official data for the June 2026 re-exam also records the number of candidates under each qualification category.
For the three subjects covered, the NTA result data shows 824 candidates qualifying for JRF, 11,610 for Assistant Professor and 23,154 for PhD only. The NTA press release states that 1,96,491 candidates registered and 1,20,355 appeared for these three subjects.