UGC NET cutoff: the 40% minimum, the 6% rule and where to find the numbers
UGC NET has no single pass mark. A minimum aggregate gets you considered, and then only the top 6% qualify for Assistant Professor, split by category and subject. Here is how it works.
UGC NET does not have one pass mark. Whether you qualify depends on a minimum aggregate, then on how you rank against everyone else who took your subject in your category. This page explains the method from section 11.3 of the December 2026 Information Bulletin.
What is the minimum mark to be considered?
You must reach a minimum aggregate across both papers before anything else is looked at.
| Category | Minimum aggregate (Paper 1 + Paper 2) |
|---|---|
| General / EWS | 40% |
| OBC-NCL / SC / ST / PwD / Third gender | 35% |
On a 300-mark paper, 40% is 120 marks and 35% is 105 marks. Reaching this minimum does not mean you have qualified. It means you are in the pool.
What is the 6% rule?
The number of candidates who qualify for Assistant Professor is 6% of the candidates who appeared in both papers. Those places are:
- divided between categories under the reservation policy, and then
- divided between subjects, in proportion.
Each subject and category therefore ends up with its own cutoff. A score that qualifies in one subject may not qualify in another, and the same subject can have a different cutoff in the next cycle.
How does normalisation affect the cutoff?
Subjects held across more than one shift are normalised using the equi-percentile method. Results are declared as percentiles together with normalised marks. Cutoffs are applied to these results, not to raw scores, so you cannot compare a raw practice score directly with a published cutoff.
Where does NTA publish UGC NET cutoffs?
NTA publishes the subject-wise and category-wise cutoffs as a PDF with the result on ugcnet.nta.nic.in. We have not reproduced the June 2026 numbers here because we have not checked them against that PDF, and we do not publish cutoffs from memory. Open the result notice for the cycle you want and find your subject code.
The December 2026 cutoffs will come with the December 2026 result, whose date NTA has not yet announced.
What does this mean for how I prepare?
- Your target is relative, not fixed. You are competing with others in your subject and category, so aim well above the 40% or 35% floor.
- There is no negative marking, so every blank is a lost chance. Answer all 150 questions. The exam pattern page has the marking rules.
- Paper 1 counts towards the aggregate. It is worth 100 of the 300 marks and is the same for everyone. The syllabus page lists its ten units.
For JRF, the age limit also applies. See the eligibility page.
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