UGC NET December 2026: What Applying Late Will Cost You

UGC NET December 2026 applicants can avoid a ₹500 late charge by completing their application and fee payment by October 28, 2026, up to 11:50 pm. Candidates applying during the October 29–31 late window must pay late charge in addition to their regular examination fee.

Applicants can go to the official website - ugcnet.nta.nic.in to fill the online application form. Registrations opened on October 8, 2026 and the last date to apply is October 28, 2026 (without late fees).

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How much will a late application cost?

Category	Regular Fee	With Late Fee	% Increase
General/ Unreserved	₹1,150	₹1,650	43.5%
General-EWS/ OBC NCL	₹600	₹1,100	83.3%
SC/ ST/ PwD/ Third Gender/ PwBD	₹325	₹825	153.8%

Source: NTA Information Bulletin. Percentage increases calculated by CareerMagnet using the published fees.

For someone paying ₹325 normally, it takes the amount to ₹825 - more than double. For someone paying ₹1,150, the increase is about 43%.

Applicants will be able to pay the application fee along with the late fee from October 29, 2026 to October 31, 2026, closing at 11:50 PM.

Application correction window

A correction window will be provided to the applicants to help them make corrections in their applications. The application correction window will be active from November 2, 2026 to November 4, 2026, up to 11:50 PM.

Please note that this window will only allow the registered applicants to make corrections in their applications. NTA will not accept fresh registrations or applications in this window.

Also, not all the fields of the application form may be editable. So, we will advise candidates to thoroughly check their application forms before submission. Don't leave any errors behind to avoid complications at later stage of the examinations.

Confirm that your application is complete

Make sure you download the confirmation page after submitting the application form and paying the application fees. NTA says that the confirmation page is generated only after successful fee payment.

Keep a safe copy of the application form, application number, payment proof and confirmation page.

If the amount is deducted from your bank account but the confirmation page is not generated, contact your bank or payment gateway. If the issue is not resolved, contact NTA. Follow the payment instructions in Annexure I of the Information Bulletin.

Eligibility criteria

The minimum marks for applicants having a Master's degree or equivalent qualification -

• 55% - General/Unreserved and General-EWS.
• 50% - OBC-NCL, SC, ST, PwD/PwBD and Third Gender.

You can also apply if you are pursuing your master’s degree or waiting for your result. However, your eligibility will be provisional. You must complete the degree with the required marks within the time limit given in the Information Bulletin. Your marks cannot be rounded up to meet the minimum requirement.

Further, 4-year/ 8-semester Bachelor's degree holders may also be eligible for the exam under certain conditions. Generally, it requires 75% marks from a Bachelor's degree holders, with relaxations applicable as per rules . However, through this route a candidate will not be eligible for the appointment of Assistant Professor, but he/ she may be eligible for JRF and PhD admission.

For JRF, the upper age limit is 30 years old as on December 1, 2026 with applicable age relaxations. There is no upper age limit for taking UGC NET for Assistant Professor eligibility or PhD admission.

Read the official Information Bulletin for the rules applicable to your qualification, category and chosen pathway.

Exam dates and format

NTA has scheduled the UGC NET exam on December 14 to December 19, 2026 (6 days). This will be a Computer-Based Test (CBT) covering 87 subjects in 2 languages - English and Hindi (except language papers).

The standard test duration is three hours. Paper 1 and Paper 2 contain a total of 150 questions worth 300 marks. For each correct answer, a candidate will be awarded 2 marks. There is no negative marking for wrong answers.

The two papers (Paper 1 and Paper 2) are conducted with no breaks between them.

Next steps

NTA is expected to release the admit cards a few days before the exam schedule. The admit card will carry details like exam centre, exam date and timings, etc.

Make sure the admit card has all the details correctly mentioned. Get in touch with NTA if you think there is discrepancy in the data mentioned on your admit card.

Keep visiting the official website of NTA to stay updated related to the exam.

Also Read - Education in India: Why Enrolment Alone Isn’t Enough

Feel free to share your views in the comment section. All the best for your exam!