6 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Aug 4, 2026 06:30 PM IST
Purushottam gave his UGC-NET exam a month ago. He is still waiting for the provisional answer key. “This year is clearly wasted for me,” he said. A master’s graduate from Mumbai who studied history and appeared for the exam from his home state, Jaipur, he said he is now seriously considering private universities for his PhD. “I’ve just been waiting. Family, relatives ask me what I’ve been doing. I tell them I’m waiting for the applications to open,” he said.
He is not alone. A month after the National Testing Agency (NTA) conducted the June 2026 UGC-NET session, the provisional answer key is still not out. The exam was held between June 22 and June 30, with an additional date on July 5 for select papers. Nearly 10 lakh candidates are estimated to have appeared across over 600 centres in the country. All are awaiting an update.
NTA usually releases the provisional answer key within 10 to 15 days of the exam. In the June 2023 session, it came within five days. This time, nearly a month has passed since the last exam date, and there is still no word from the agency. For an exam that decides eligibility for junior research fellowships (JRFs), assistant professor posts, and PhD admissions across the country, the silence has left candidates unable to plan their next steps.
Indianexpress.com reached out to the NTA for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
No link to protests: Students question delay
Students’ groups, including college unions, have publicly asked NTA to explain the delay. Social media buzz also saw students claiming repetitive questions and errors in the Sociology paper, which may have prompted the Ministry of Education to ask NTA to investigate, which could be one reason for the hold-up. The NTA has not issued an official statement on the matter.
The delay comes months after NTA cancelled the NEET-UG 2026 exam over an alleged paper leak affecting over 20 lakh candidates, and later conducted a re-exam in June, results of which were released soon after. Students say this backdrop makes the current silence harder to explain. “There’s also no connection between the protests and the delay in the answer key,” Purushottam said, referring to the student unrest a few weeks ago in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. “Releasing a provisional answer key doesn’t need fresh work. The questions already exist. You just need to compare them with the correct answers,” he said.
Anchal, who completed her Master’s in English from Jawaharlal Nehru University and appeared for the exam from Delhi, said the delay is affecting more than just her scorecard. “There should be a fixed timeline for when our research proposals are due. Last year, the PhD prospectus came out by the end of May, and applications closed by July,” she said. This year, universities are still waiting on NTA. “I’m expecting at least another four to six months, even if the results come out now,” she said.
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A student from Odisha, who studied at a public university in Delhi and requested anonymity, said the uncertainty is forcing her to hedge her bets. “I have to apply to a lot of universities right now because of the delay. I’m not sure I’ll get into a central university in time,” she said. She said her research proposal is also on hold. “We can’t focus on one thing without the answer key. And if the admission process gets delayed, we lose a chunk of the semester too,” she said.
Privately funded universities offer fee waivers, grants
All three said the delay could push students who can afford it toward private universities. “A 100 per cent,” Purushottam said. He pointed to faculty shortages in central university departments as one reason more people may look elsewhere. “There’s a genuine gap in exposure and calibre of faculty in some departments right now. Privately funded universities, the likes of which are common around Delhi-NCR, like Ashoka University, Shiv Nadar and others have been building strong faculty and offer PhD scholars fee waivers and grants,” he said. “A student who has already spent so much during their master’s and their research proposal, and is genuinely passionate about the subject, shouldn’t have to make such a choice.”
The Delhi student agreed that financial constraints are pushing many toward central universities and institutes like Hyderabad Central University, IIT Delhi, and the Indian Statistical Institute, rather than private options, but said the uncertainty is making students apply more widely regardless. “There’s no option to fall back on anything else,” she said.
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Anchal, however, was more sceptical of private universities as a fix. “It doesn’t make sense that PhD students are being asked to pay application fees and appear for separate entrances even after qualifying NET,” she said. Some private institutions charge Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 a semester for PhD students, she said. “Research shouldn’t depend on the will of private funders.”
For now, the students are left tracking rumours on WhatsApp groups and coaching channels. Past precedent offers little comfort: in the previous December session, NTA’s provisional answer key was released after a month-long delay, and the final key retained errors that were later corrected only after a high court order. For now, all three students, along with lakhs of others, are stuck in a holding pattern that has already cost them months, with no clarity on when the wait will end.