Hyderabad Candidates Allege NTA Recycled Over 60 Questions in June 2026 UGC-NET Exam

Candidates and academics in Hyderabad have raised serious concerns over the integrity of the UGC-NET English examination held in June 2026, alleging that the National Testing Agency (NTA) recycled nearly half of the questions from a previous test. Out of 150 questions in the June 2026 paper, candidates claimed that 65 to 67 questions were copied directly from the December 2024 exam.

According to candidates who compared the two papers, the overlap extended beyond just a few questions. Entire reading comprehension passages, poem-based questions, literature questions, and the sequence of answer options reportedly remained unchanged. Some aspirants also alleged that questions previously challenged as incorrect in the December 2024 exam resurfaced in the June 2026 paper.

Student leader Karthik J expressed frustration over the situation, pointing out that candidates spend months or years preparing for the exam, which determines eligibility for assistant professorships, PhD admissions, and Junior Research Fellowships. He questioned whether genuine preparation still mattered if such a large portion of the paper was repeated.

Blessy Harika, an assistant professor at a private college in Hyderabad, said the repetition appeared to favor candidates who had access to coaching institutes and intensive training on previous-year papers. She added that similar, though smaller-scale, issues were noted in the Sociology and Geography papers.

Academics have called for a thorough inquiry into the NTA's question-setting and quality-control processes. An unnamed professor of English and liberal arts at a Hyderabad university described the overlap as a serious failure of academic quality control, suggesting a casual approach to an exam that affects thousands of careers.

Former Telangana Council of Higher Education (TGCHE) vice-chairman and Osmania University Botany professor Shaik Mehmood termed the issue a systemic failure rather than an isolated mistake. He stated that the NTA should review the qualifications of those involved in preparing and moderating the papers to maintain academic standards and restore trust in public institutions.