Careers360 Logo
ask-icon
share
    How to Calculate Cut off Marks for UGC NET 2026 Exam?

    How to Calculate Cut off Marks for UGC NET 2026 Exam?

    Meghana Mohana KrishnanUpdated on 04 Feb 2026, 10:45 PM IST

    How To Calculate Cut off Marks For UGC NET - National Testing Agency (NTA) releases the UGC NET cut off 2026 along with the declaration of the result. Candidates securing marks equal to or more than the UGC NET 2026 cut off marks are considered UGC NET qualified. Candidates can check the UGC NET cut off in the form of PDF for all subjects as per their categories. However, candidates must also know how to calculate cut off marks for UGC NET so that they can have an idea of the marking scheme.

    This Story also Contains

    1. How to calculate UGC NET Cut off - Qualifying Marks
    2. Determining Factors of UGC NET Cut off 2026
    3. How to Calculate cut off marks for UGC NET - Assistant Professors
    4. What is Percentile Scores in UGC NET 2026?
    5. Previous Year UGC NET Cut Off
    How to Calculate Cut off Marks for UGC NET 2026 Exam?
    How to calculate UGC NET cut off marks

    Also, knowing how to calculate cut off of UGC NET, candidates can know whether they can qualify or not. There are various factors that are considered by the exam authorities in order to calculate the UGC NET exam 2026 cut off. Calculating the marks secured by the candidates in each slot also plays an important part in determining the cut off since UGC NET cut off is nothing but the marks obtained by the last qualifying candidate. To know more about how to calculate UGC NET cut off 2026, go through the article below.

    How to calculate UGC NET Cut off - Qualifying Marks

    The qualifying marks of UGC NET is pre-determined by the exam authorities. The UGC NET qualifying marks have been mentioned in the UGC NET notification PDF. As per the UGC NET qualifying marks, general category candidates must secure at least 40% marks while reserved category candidates must secure at least 35%. The table below contains the qualifying marks.

    UGC NET 2026 Qualifying Marks

    Category

    Paper I (Out of 100 marks)

    Paper II (Out of 200 marks)

    UGC NET qualifying marks for General (Unreserved)

    40 (40%)

    40 (40%)

    OBC Non-creamy layer, PWD/SC/ST and Transgenders

    35 (35%)

    35 (35%)

    Determining Factors of UGC NET Cut off 2026

    While calculating the UGC NET cut off, the authorities consider the following factors:

    • Total number of appeared candidates

    • Availability of seats

    • Difficulty level of the examination

    How to Calculate cut off marks for UGC NET - Assistant Professors

    • The number of candidates to be qualified (total slots or Eligibility for Assistant Professor) must be equal to 6% of the total candidates appearing in both the papers of UGC NET.

    • The total slots in which the exam will be held must be allocated to different categories as per the reservation policy

    • For JRF and Assistant Professor eligibility, candidates will have to appear for both papers - paper I and II and secure at least 40% marks in both the papers taken together for General (Unreserved) and 35% aggregate marks in both the papers for all candidates belonging to the following reserved categories (viz., SC, ST, OBC (belonging to Non-Creamy Layer, PwD and Transgender).

    • The number of candidates to be declared qualified in any subject for a particular category is derived as per the method mentioned below

    Example: Number of candidates to be declared qualified for Eligibility for Assistant Professor in the subject ‘Economics’ for the Scheduled Caste (SC) category

    Number of candidates belonging to SC category who secure at least 35% for SC category in Economics' (x) Total slots derived for SC category (÷) Total number of candidates belonging to SC category over all subjects who secure at least 35% aggregate marks in both the papers taken together

    The aggregate percentage of the two papers as per the number of slots arrived at, will determine the qualifying cut-off for Assistant Professor ‘in ‘Economics’ for the SC category. Similar formula must be applied to all the other subjects for all other categories. So that the cut off mark for UGC NET can be calculated for all categories.

    How to Calculate cut off marks for UGC NET - Both JRF and Assistant Professor

    All those candidates willing to get shortlisted for both JRF & Assistant Professor both must know how the cut off for UGC NET is calculated for both. Here, the total number of slots available for awarding JRF is allocated among different categories as per the reservation policy. The table below contains the process through which the subject wise and category wise allocation of JRF is done

    Number of candidates to be declared qualified for JRF & Eligibility for Assistant Professor both in the subject ‘Economics’ for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category

    Number of candidates belonging to ST category who have opted for JRF and have qualified for Eligibility for Assistant Professor in the subject ‘Economics’ (x) Total JRF slots available for ST category (÷) Total number of candidates belonging to ST category over all subjects who have opted for JRF and have qualified for Eligibility for Assistant Professor

    Note: The aggregate percentage of the two paper scores as per the number of JRF slots arrived at, will determine the qualifying cut-off for JRF in ‘Economics’ for the ST category. Similarly, the cut off of UGC NET for other categories and subjects will be done.

    UGC NET Normalization procedure

    The process of Normalization is done in order to compare the candidates' scores across multiple session papers. For normalization across sections, NTA uses the percentile equivalence process. This is done to provide equal opportunities to all candidates appearing in various slots which have different difficulty levels.

    What is Percentile Scores in UGC NET 2026?

    Based on the relative performance of all the appeared candidates, the percentile scores are calculated. The marks secured by the candidates are converted into a scale ranging from 100 to 0 for each session of examinees. The previous percentile scores is calculated up to 7 decimal places to avoid bunching effect and avoid the situation of the tie.

    Previous Year UGC NET Cut Off

    UGC NET June 2025 Cut off

    Subject/Category wise cutoff for Assistant Professor and JRF

    Download here

    UGC NET December 2024 Cut off

    Subject/Category wise cutoff for Assistant Professor and JRF

    Download here

    UGC NET December 2023 Cut off

    Subject/Category wise cutoff for Assistant Professor and JRF

    Download here

    UGC NET June 2023 Cutoff

    Subject/Category wise cutoff

    Subject/Category wise cutoff

    Assistant ProfessorJRF

    UGC NET Cut Off 2023 (December 2022 Session)

    Subject/Category wise cutoff percentile

    Subject/Category wise cutoff marks

    Download Now

    Download Now

    UGC NET 2020 Cut off (June Session) - General

    Subject

    Lectureship Cutoff Only (General)

    JRF & Lectureship Cut off (General)

    Economics

    62.67

    70.00

    Political Science

    60.0

    68.0

    Philosophy

    63.33

    72.0

    Sociology

    61.33

    70.00

    History

    54.00

    60.00

    Anthropology

    60.67

    68.67

    Commerce

    95.63

    99.35

    Public Administration

    62.00

    68.00

    Management

    56.67

    64.67

    Hindi

    97.2203957

    99.59

    English

    98.29

    99.7

    Mass Communication and Journalism

    58.67

    65.33

    Geography

    60.67

    68.00

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

    Q: Where can I get the official cut off of UGC NET?
    A:

    The UGC NET cut off 2026 is released along with the result at ugcnet.nta.nic.in.

    Q: What If I secure the qualifying marks and fail to secure the category wise cut off marks?
    A:

    In order to qualify the test, candidates will have to secure both the qualifying marks as well as the UGC NET cut off marks as per their categories.

    Q: What is normalisation?
    A:

    The process of normalisation is basically equating the marks of all the candidates to 100. This is done to give equal opportunity to the candidates appearing for the test in different slots which have different difficulty levels. 

    Q: What after qualifying as Assistant Professors?
    A:

    Once you qualify for Assistant Professors, you will get an eligibility certificate through which you can apply in any of the colleges and universities for Lectureship.

    Articles
    |
    Upcoming Competition Exams
    Ongoing Dates
    APS CSB Score Card Date

    8 Oct'25 - 31 Mar'26 (Online)

    Ongoing Dates
    APSET Admit Card Date

    19 Mar'26 - 29 Mar'26 (Online)

    Upcoming Dates
    KVS Recruitment Examination Exam Date

    27 Mar'26 - 31 Mar'26 (Online)

    Certifications By Top Providers
    Study from Still Life
    Via Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi
    Online Course of Indian Constitution
    Via NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad
    Access to Justice
    Via National Law University, New Delhi
    Sports Psychology
    Via Indian Institute of Technology Madras
    Research Ethics
    Via Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala
    Criminal Justice Administration
    Via National Law University, New Delhi
    Swayam
     220 courses
    Edx
     201 courses
    LawSikho
     127 courses
    NPTEL
     92 courses
    Futurelearn
     89 courses
    Coursera
     76 courses
    Explore Top Universities Across Globe

    Questions related to UGC NET

    On Question asked by student community

    Have a question related to UGC NET ?

    No, since you have already cleared the General Category cutoff of CSIR UGC-NET , you are considered a meritorious candidate, and you can apply for a PhD seat in the General Category without any issues regarding your OBC-NCL declaration.

    For the UGC NET examination, only a Central OBC-NCL certificate is considered valid. Submitting a State OBC certificate may create complications during document verification and could lead to your candidature being treated under the General (Unreserved) category. You can immediately obtain a valid Central OBC-NCL certificate from the concerned Tehsil

    If you filled the UGC NET form under EWS but you don’t have a valid EWS certificate, then forget using the EWS category. They won’t accept it. You’ll automatically be treated as General category during document verification.


    And no, this won’t make your form “invalid” or “illegal.” It just means

    Hello,

    If you have entered the wrong annual income but belong to the OBC NCL category and have a valid certificate, it should not cause a problem during verification, as long as your certificate supports your category and income criteria.

    Make sure:

    1. Your OBC NCL certificate is valid and matches

    Hello,

    Not clearing UGC NET is not a big problem unless you want to become an Assistant Professor or apply for a PhD with fellowship.

    You can still apply for PhD without NET in many universities, but you may need to clear their entrance test. For teaching jobs in colleges