Prateek Tanmay
4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 26, 2026 11:45 AM IST
Even as the National Testing Agency (NTA) continues to face scrutiny over the conduct of NEET-UG, a fresh controversy has emerged around the UGC-NET June 2026 cycle, with students alleging that technical glitches locked them out of the application process despite repeated attempts.
The University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET), conducted by the NTA, is the gateway for eligibility to become an Assistant Professor in Indian universities and colleges, and also determines qualification for the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), which provides funding for doctoral research.
Over the past few days, students from Delhi University and other institutions have written to the University Grants Commission (UGC) to reopen the registration portal.
One of them, a postgraduate Philosophy scholar, wrote to the UGC requesting the “reopening or extension of the application window for the UGC NET June 2026 examination”, saying they were “unable to submit” the form before the deadline because of “delay in Digilocker verification”.
“Given I am from a geographical remote area, Kalahandi, there was a lack of technical access for Digilocker verification due to which the deadline exceeded my submission,” the student wrote.
Describing the examination as critical to their future, the student added: “I am a postgraduate student in Philosophy, and qualifying this examination is essential for my academic and professional advancement. I have been preparing diligently for this session and it would be deeply unfortunate to miss this opportunity on procedural grounds alone.”
The student urged authorities to consider “granting a short extension to the application deadline, or reopen the portal for applicants who could not register in time due to genuine difficulties”.
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Another student described days of failed attempts to complete the registration process. “I was trying to complete and submit my application form for the UGC NET examination, but unfortunately faced continuous technical glitches on the portal for the last three days,” the student wrote in an email to the UGC.
The student said that despite trying “from different devices and browsers”, the website “either failed to load properly, showed errors during submission, or did not proceed to the payment/final submission stage.”
“Because of these technical issues, I could not successfully submit my application before the deadline,” the email said.
Calling the examination “very important” for their academic career, the student wrote that they had “genuinely tried” to complete the process within time and appealed to the authorities to “kindly look into this matter and consider allowing me an opportunity to complete my application process.”
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The Indian Express has reached out to the UGC and a comment is awaited.
The NTA had already extended the registration deadline for UGC-NET June 2026 after “various requests were received from candidates”. Under the revised schedule, the last date to submit the application form and pay the examination fee was extended to May 23, while the correction window was scheduled between May 25 and 27.
The exam will be held between June 22 and June 30 in a Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode.
Issues with the high-stakes examinations were reported in previous years as well.
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In June 2024, the UGC-NET exam was cancelled after allegations that the question paper had been leaked on the darknet — affecting more than 9 lakh aspirants. The Ministry of Education later handed the matter to the CBI after inputs from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre suggested that the paper had been compromised.
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