All you need to know about UGC-NET, JRF and Becoming an Assistant Professor

Pursuing a career in law is one of the top choices in India for those who want to become a lawyer. Pursuing law offers you a bucket of career opportunities which is not just limited to getting into litigation, firm job, government service, etc.

Being an Assistant Professor or JRF is one of the interesting areas in the law that any law graduate is looking to opt for. One has to appear in UGC NET Exam to become Assistant Professor or JRF.

Wait, but what is UGC NET Exam?

About UGC NET (Law) Examination

National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts the UGC NET (Law) Examination for students who have completed their LLM and wish to pursue a career in academics in India.

How UGC NET Exam is conducted?

National Testing Agency conducts this examination twice a year on behalf of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Qualifying UGC NET Exam is a mandatory requirement for appointment as Assistant Professors in various Law Colleges and Universities across the country. Even if you are looking for a grant of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) to pursue a PhD you need to clear UGC NET Exam.

The UGC designs the syllabus and the structure of the examination and the questions are MCQ based.

National Testing Agency (NTA) selects candidates who fulfill UGC NET Eligibility Criteria for Assistant Professor and JRF (Junior Research Fellow) in reputed Indian universities and colleges.

UGC NET qualification

• Candidates possessing a postgraduate degree with 55% marks can apply for the exam. 
• Candidates should not be more than 31 years of age for JRF. However, there is no age restriction to apply for the post of Assistant Professor.

If you are a NET aspirant, you must check the complete UGC NET Eligibility 2022 for Assistant Professor and Junior Research Fellowship before applying for the exam.

To sort out the suitable candidates based on their age limits, educational qualifications, and other criteria, NTA has decided on some guidelines for the exam which are as follows:

Masters’ in Law or related subjects with minimum  

55% (For General) 

50% (For OBC/SC/ST/PwD/Transgender). 

For NET JRF, the age limit is 

31 years (For General) 

36 years (for OBC/SC/ST/PwD/Female/Transgender)

For Assistant Professor, there is no age limit criteria. 

Note: Candidates who are pursuing L.L.M. Degree will get 3 years of relaxation in age. 

Exam Pattern

UGC NET Law 2022 Exam Pattern consists of two papers i.e.

Paper 1 – It is a common General Aptitude Test that evaluates your teaching and research aptitude.

Paper 2 – Paper 2 is subject-specific. This helps in evaluating your knowledge of Law subjects.

The marking scheme for the UGC NET Law exam as per NTA guidelines is given below:

Important Note – There is no negative marking for any wrong answer.

For more articles on LLM and UGC NET, click here.