It is designed to determine the eligibility of candidates for: awarding of the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), appointment as assistant professor, and admission to PhD in Indian universities and colleges.

[3] Until July 2018, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducted the exam, which was taken over by the NTA since December 2018.

[4] From December 2018 onward, NTA started releasing the UGC-NET e-certificate and JRF award letter online on its official website for the qualified candidates.

A student has to obtain the minimum qualifying marks in UGC–NET, with aggregate 55% and 50% in their postgraduate's or master's degree, for General and Others respectively.

For this purpose; a new qualification category "PhD only" was added from UGC NET June 2024 onwards.