Minority candidates eligible for the Maulana Azad National Fellowship will now be selected by the UGC on the basis of merit in the National Eligibility Test (NET). NET is conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and CSIR.
An official update in this regard said 'Prior clearance of CBSE-NET/ CSIR-NET examination will be a prerequisite for award of Maulana Azad National Fellowship for minority students for M.Phil/ Ph.D'.
756 fellowships were awarded in 2017-18 and 1000 fellowships will be awarded in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Earlier, students of the minority were exempted from clearing the NET exam. Since NET is now compulsory, the minimum score required at the PG level is 55%.
Apart from this, UGC also introduced several major changes in the UGC NET exam. The exam is scheduled on 8 July 2018 and will have 2 papers only instead of three. Also, the upper age limit for the JRF candidates has been increased to 30 years.