The UGC NET June 2026 result will ultimately decide whether candidates qualify for JRF, Assistant Professor or PhD admission, but the previous two sessions offer an important lesson: cutoffs do not move in one direction across subjects. A comparison of the June 2025 and December 2025 subject-wise cutoffs shows considerable variation, meaning candidates should avoid judging their chances against a single "safe score".
With NTA conducting re-exams for English, Sociology, and Commerce subjects on September 9 & 10, cutoffs could trend up or down depending on the difficulty of the question paper.
Take Political Science. For the unreserved category, the JRF cutoff fell from 244 marks in June 2025 to 214 in December 2025, a 30-mark drop. The Assistant Professor cutoff also declined from 218 to 188.
Psychology followed a similar, although smaller, pattern. Its unreserved JRF cutoff moved from 248 to 234, while the Assistant Professor cutoff slipped from 226 to 206.
The biggest warning comes from History. Its unreserved JRF cutoff jumped from 180 in June 2025 to 216 in December 2025 — a 36-mark increase. The Assistant Professor cutoff similarly rose from 162 to 192.
Don't assume last session's cutoff will repeat.
A score comfortably above the previous cutoff is obviously safer, but borderline scores can move either way.
Candidates targeting JRF should judge themselves more conservatively than those targeting Assistant Professor.
Category matters significantly; the previous sessions show substantial differences between UR, OBC-NCL, EWS, SC and ST cutoffs.
Candidates should wait for the official subject/category-wise cutoff, rather than relying on coaching-centre predictions.
Don't compare your score with only December 2025. Use both recent sessions as a range.
Subject matters enormously. History and Political Science demonstrate how sharply cutoffs can move.
Category matters. UR, OBC-NCL, EWS, SC and ST cutoffs can differ substantially.
JRF and Assistant Professor should be assessed separately.
Candidates close to the previous cutoff should avoid declaring themselves qualified or disqualified before the official cutoff is released.
The last two sessions tell June 2026 candidates something more valuable than a predicted number: UGC NET cutoffs can move both ways—sometimes by 30 marks or more. For everyone else, the most sensible approach now is to calculate the expected score from the provisional key, keep a cutoff range rather than a single prediction, and wait for the final answer key and official subject-category-wise cutoff.
