The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to make the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) award letter valid for an additional year. The decision was made in light of the difficulties that scholars faced during the coronavirus outbreak.

UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar announced the news on Twitter. “UGC has decided to extend the validity period of the JRF award letter up to one year (beyond the three year period) for all those UGC NET qualified candidates whose admission process was affected due to COVID 19 pandemic situation. The notification is being issued.”

The National Testing Agency (NTA) conducted the UGC-NET of December 2020 and June 2021 Cycles jointly between November 20th, 2021 and January 5th, 2022 due to the covid 19 pandemic. Over 12 lakh people had registered for the UGC-NET exam. The UGC-NET examination was held in 81 subjects at 837 centres spread across 239 cities in India.