The University Grants Commission - National Eligibility Test (UGC - NET) is a standardised common exam that takes place twice a year. The test determines whether a person is eligible for the post of assistant professor and also grants JRF (Junior Research Fellowship) to candidates aspiring for research.
In 2013, the UGC had announced that the candidates who qualify this examination shall be eligible for a private college lectureship job and can use this score for their application for recruitments for advertised posts in varied disciplines like management, finance, research and development and so on.
With time the NET has metamorphosed as a touchstone to check a student’s ability to teach at a university level, but there are key questions about the exam becoming more impalpable with time.
The exam establishing efficacy?
Dr Rimi B Chatterjee, Professor at Department of English, Jadavpur University (JU), West Bengal, says that the examination allots one a certain rank after their qualification and if one has applied for the JRF, they are eligible for grants that enhances their research prospects. But she also states that, “It might drive talented people away from the education system.”
The professor calls this evaluation method “An exam quite derivative of the West”, hinting that the idea of NET examinations were taken from the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) that was introduced in 1936, in the United States that accords admission to master’s and doctoral degree programmes to the students.
Dr Rimi states, “Such exams eventually go out of fashion in the colonial mainland but few are still latching on to it. The redundancy shows when it doesn’t measure anything useful. A lot of students come to JU for admission into PhD programmes but their research proposals are not in tune with their NET scores as advertised.” The statement sets a point that the scores are not a benchmark for your research or teaching ability.
Professor Mani RSS, Vice President, Institutional Development at ITM Group of Institutions and a career counsellor, does not condone the exam’s efficacy but takes it to be a ‘measure’ or a ‘starting point’ – “It tests one who at least has the ability to represent the knowledge gathered in a certain domain as accurately as possible. It is predominantly testing one’s knowledge.”
Dr Sami Anand, Head of Department of the Training and Placement, School of CSE & IT, Lovely Professional University, too says that the exam is not the only benchmark to test a student’s academic prowess. The exam provides clarity to students and further prepares them for what is to come, whether it is research or teaching.
Prof Mani aids Dr Sami’s statement by saying that achieving a great score would not conveniently lead to the conclusion that a student is a good teacher or a researcher, “Ability to teach includes presentation skills, ability to tackle questions asked by students, ability to create evaluation mode which are interesting and practical.”
The exam has the potential to evolve?
The post-pandemic time marked a change in the education sector as the medium of instruction was lopsided by the intervention of technology. The approach to various disciplines of study too witnessed a change but what about these examinations, could they also evolve with time?
Toshiba Shukla, a UGC-NET mentor and an academician approvingly asserts that the pattern of the examination has changed in terms of examining a student’s conceptual clarity. “Earlier the paper was theoretical so students had a way to mug up the information but now the standard is at par with the optional paper of the Civil Services Examination.”
But the experts have a consensus regarding the change that should be incorporated in the examination. Prof Mani says, “UGC NET could consider a practicum as a part of the entire selection process, where those who want to build a career in teaching should demonstrate their ability to teach both offline and online plus hybrid.”
Prof Sami emphasises upon the fact that the exam has a scope of improvement. He says that the industry now is drawn by skill and hence, certain cross-disciplinary things need to be added to the existing syllabus.
Shukla too opines that the syllabus needs inclusions and variations. “Ideally it should be because research remains a core area and students wanting to do their PhD ought to study ethics of research in great detail and types of research methods.
The exam, an MCQ Maze?
Dr Rimi calls the pattern a “design flaw”, where she states that the examination has no logical relationship with the subject you are studying. Dr Rimi, who herself hasn’t been able to crack it, talks about the “hidden trauma” of the multiple-choice question (MCQ) pattern where you have to produce and retain knowledge in chunks of information.
Adding to the previous statement, Kurchika Nath, a PhD Scholar at IIT Kharagpur, who too couldn’t qualify the exams, states, “Such MCQ-based exams are dependent on a student’s ability to retain information. The acquisition of knowledge and information are two very different things and such exams do not focus on the application of the knowledge gained through time.”
For many, the MCQ type pattern is a big challenge as there is only one decisive answer to the questions. Jeni Johnson, a former Social Work student of the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development and a NET aspirant expresses her dissatisfaction with the objective-type questions.
She says that, “Examination does not recognise people like me who prefer subjective questions over MCQs as it gives me the chance to express what I know about a particular topic.”
Prof Mani talks about an alternative way to the exam and asserts that, “The efficacy can improve if we integrate a little more depth in the exam pattern and for this a blended pattern including MCQs and short answers and comprehensive passages can be integrated.”
Dr M Manzoor Hussain, Registrar of the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad says that, “Students must prepare for the exam despite the process in which it is being conducted. Although the weightage should be given to additional demo classes by the participant where they exhibit their teaching skills and in case of any other discrepancies, one must look for the research and publication history of the candidate.”
Dr Hussain states that there are various processes to go through even after passing the examination so one must prepare themselves in a suitable manner.
The exam, an endless pursuit for jobs?
Many candidates appear for the examination to qualify for the position of an assistant professor and be able to teach at universities and take up different jobs under the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), but does this exam guarantee a job and give leverage to your academic career?
On this, Dr Anand says that the weightage of UGC-NET is rated high when it comes to jobs with PSUs and various others. He says that, “The qualification is a mandate for various institutions, it also adds weightage if one is appearing for interviews and adds points to their accreditations and grants.”
But, UGC-Net is not the end of it all. Dr Manzoor Hussain states that even if UGC-NET is a common test for recruitment, there are other examinations conducted by states' public service commissions where the candidate can appear, denoting the other opportunities that are available for aspirants.
Toshiba Shukla calls the scenario of employment “dynamic”. She adds, “The probability of getting a job depends on the number of vacancies available in a university. She says that the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC) has announced 4,000 vacancies for the post of Assistant Professor. “For people having a NET score, they can apply to these universities and they will directly be called for an interview.”
But sometimes even with enough experience or valid scores, finding a job can seem challenging. Kurchika Nath brings our attention to the plight of aspirants and scholars in the country.
She states, “With the mass production of PhDs as a result of the increasing number of NET and JRF scholars, there are two kinds of academic employment that people seek, some go for college teaching to escape the publish or perish culture. Others, who choose to pursue research, seek to find employment in institutes that focus primarily on research with funds allocated for the same.”
She also draws attention to the factor of unemployment that is becoming common with the PhD degree holders. Having said that, there are still students who are struggling to get into good PhD programmes or seeking a job. Unemployment is not uncommon among scholars with a PhD degree.”
