National Eligibility Test (NET) is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on behalf of University Grant Commission (UGC). Earlier, the examination was conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The NET examination is conducted twice a year for the selection of either Assistant Professor in the Indian Universities and Colleges or both Assistant Professor as well as Junior Research Fellowship (JRF).
All the candidates who qualify NET are not considered for Research Fellowships granted by the University Grant Commission. The candidates aspiring to seek fellowship must specify it in the application form that whether they are applying for the fellowship or not. The fellowship is awarded to the candidates persuading Research work in the respective disciplines.
UGC NET examination is provided for the following subjects:
| Economics | Persian |
| Political science | Rajasthani |
| Philosophy | German |
| Psychology | Japanese |
| Sociology | Adult Education |
| History | Physical Education |
| Anthropology | Arab Culture and Islamic Studies |
| Commerce | Indian Culture |
| Education | Labour Welfare/ Personnel Management/ Industrial Relation/ Labour and Social Welfare |
| Social Work | Resource Management |
| Defense and Strategic Studies | Law |
| Home Science | Library and Information Science |
| Public Administration | Buddhist, Jaina, Gandhian and Peace Studies |
| Population Studies | Comparative Study of Religions |
| Hindustani Music- Vocal and Instrumental | Mass Communication and Journalism |
| Management | Dance |
| Maithili | Museology & Conservation |
| Bengali | Archaeology |
| Hindi | Criminology |
| Kannada | Tribal and Regional Language/ Literature |
| Malayalam | Folk Literature |
| Odia | Comparative Literature |
| Punjabi | Sanskrit Traditional Subjects |
| Sanskrit | Women Studies |
| Tamil | Social Medicine & Community Health |
| Telugu | Forensic Science |
| Urdu | Pali |
| Arabic | Computer Science and Applications |
| English | Electronic science |
| Linguistics | International and Area Studies |
| Chinese | Prakrit |
| Dogri | Human Rights and Duties |
| Nepali | Tourism Administration and Management |
| Manipuri | Bodo |
| Assamese | Santali |
| Gujrati | Karnatik Music- Vocal and Instrumental |
| Marathi | Rabindra Sangeet |
| French | Percussion Instruments |
| Spanish | Drama and Theatre |
| Russian | Yoga |
To apply for the examination candidate must fulfill the basic UGC NET Eligibility Criteria to apply for the examination. Candidate must have a postgraduate degree in the relevant subject with an aggregate of 55%. Once the candidate meets the requirement of the examination, he or she can step forward to complete the UGC NET Application Procedure, which is the first step towards the UGC NET Selection Procedure. It is important to note that candidates who successfully completed the application procedure will only be able to get the UGC NET Admit Card, which is mandatory for the examination.