New Delhi: Days after announcing that the UGC-NET exam for English, Commerce and Sociology will be re-conducted following multiple errors in the question papers, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has revamped its examination team, removing 600 subject experts and onboarding new ones.
The agency—an autonomous body under Ministry of Education’s Department of Higher Education—which has been in the eye of the storm over major lapses in conducting competitive exams, including NEET-UG 2026, also informed the ministry Tuesday that it will shift its offices to a new premise on a war footing, with security reinforced by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) teams. NTA is currently based in Okhla Industrial Estate.
The measures come a day after the ministry directed the agency to conduct a thorough audit of all examination processes.
The UGC-NET exam was conducted in June. While students had been raising concerns about errors in the question papers since then, the NTA acknowledged the issues only Sunday and cancelled the exams in the three subjects. The exams will now be conducted afresh on 9 and 10 September.
Following the announcement, Education Minister Pralhad Joshi held a meeting with senior ministry and NTA officials Monday and asked them to take corrective measures and submit a report.
According to the ministry, during a follow-up meeting Tuesday, the NTA informed the minister that it had revamped its examination team, removing 600 experts and onboarding new ones.
“A four-tier question paper checking system will be put in place to strengthen the scrutiny of examination papers. Twenty-five officials will be inducted in the next two to three weeks. The further induction plan was also reviewed,” the ministry said.
The UGC-NET exam cancellation comes amid the intense criticism that the agency has been facing over the NEET-UG paper leak and irregularities which led to nationwide protests. The agitation had eventually forced the resignation of then education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
On 26 July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the constitution of a high-powered task force on examination reforms under the leadership of Nandan Nilekan, co-founder and former chairperson of Infosys.
The agency has since announced a series of corrective measures. The ministry was informed Monday that more than 50 staff members have been removed.
It has sought applications for 10 new professional leadership positions, including Chief Technology Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, General Manager (Test Security), and General Manager (Research and Development and Psychometrics), which are in the process of being filled.
Additionally, it has engaged domain specialists from the private sector in areas like cybersecurity, psychometrics and question-paper design. Earlier this month, the NTA had also floated a tender for round-the-clock security services.