UGC NET Exams Cancelled After Experts Flag AI-Generated Questions and Repeated Content

UGC NET cancelled papers written by AI? Experts flag signs of AI use, NTA denies

The National Testing Agency has cancelled and ordered fresh UGC-NET papers in English, Commerce and Sociology after candidates and subject experts flagged errors and repeated questions. The Sociology paper reportedly contained misspelled names of scholars such as George Ritzer and Talcott Parsons, while candidates alleged that around 67 of 150 English questions had appeared in an earlier exam. The National Testing Agency has cancelled and ordered fresh UGC-NET papers in English, commerce and sociology after candidates and subject experts have flagged a string of errors, including badly mangled names of well-known sociologists and dozens of repeated questions lifted from earlier exams, according to sources cited by TOI. Insiders say the papers were prepared with heavy, poorly supervised use of artificial intelligence, though NTA has denied that generative AI was used to author them. UGC-NET exam decides who is eligible to teach and pursue research at universities across the country, which is why a mix-up of this scale has turned into more than just an embarrassing footnote. It has become a question about how much of India's biggest exams are now being built by machines, and how little human checking may have happened afterward. When Ritzer Became "Putzer"The sociology paper drew the sharpest reaction. Candidates spotted names of major scholars twisted almost beyond recognition, George Ritzer turned up as "Putzer," Talcott Parsons became "Parsow," and G S Ghurye was rendered "Ghunye." Martha Nussbaum's name did not survive the process either. Beyond the spelling, students said the terminology felt garbled and the questions themselves barely matched what they had actually studied. It reads almost like a comedy of errors, except the people affected are researchers and future academics whose careers hinge on this one test. The Case of the Repeated QuestionsThe English paper had a different problem: repetition, and a lot of it. Candidates alleged that around 67 of its 150 questions had shown up in an earlier UGC-NET exam, with some claiming even the order of the answer choices matched. Commerce candidates reported something similar, pointing to repeated questions on taxation, break-even analysis, capital structure and services marketing. Nobody has yet explained exactly how the same questions ended up back on the paper. Ministry Puzzled With Six Weeks of SilenceWhat has puzzled the education ministry as much as the errors themselves is the gap before anything was done about them. Ministry officials reportedly wanted the flawed papers cancelled and retests scheduled by the end of July or the first week of August. NTA did not act on that advice. It waited nearly six weeks, and only announced the cancellations when it released provisional answer keys for 84 of the 87 subjects on offer. A senior source in the education ministry described meetings with two senior NTA officers who admitted they could not finalise the answer keys because the papers had been "designed in an ad hoc manner." Pressed on what that actually meant, the source said, the officers had nothing further to offer. Another source raised a more basic question about how the papers were even assembled in the first place, asking pointedly "how did the examiners not have answers to the questions they had designed?" A panel of four or five experts is supposed to set each paper, so if that panel existed, it is unclear how so many recycled questions slipped through unnoticed. NTA Says No AI, But Questions RemainNTA director general Abhishek Singh has rejected the idea that generative AI wrote the disputed papers. He told TOI there was a "human review" once the papers were set, but when asked how the errors then went unnoticed, he did not elaborate further. A faculty member from JNU summed up the deeper issue, noting the real question is "whether adequate human academic review took place after that process was complete." Reliance on technology, on its own, does not prove AI caused the mistakes.

Report: Experts claim AI was used to draft questions in NET exams - MEDIANAMA

Generative AI was allegedly used to set and translate three UGC-NET papers later cancelled by the National Testing Agency (NTA). Subject experts made this claim while speaking anonymously to The Times of India. They alleged that automation contributed to errors that escaped adequate human scrutiny. NTA, however, has denied using generative AI to author the disputed papers. The allegations concern the English, Commerce, and Sociology examinations conducted during the June 2026 UGC-NET cycle. UGC-NET is used to determine eligibility for Assistant Professor positions and the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in Indian universities and colleges Candidates had earlier flagged serious irregularities across the three papers. These included repeated questions, misspelt names of academics, factual errors and problematic translations. NTA subsequently cancelled the three papers after an expert committee found multiple defects. It has scheduled fresh examinations for September 9 and 10. Allegations in detail: The experts said AI was used extensively during paper preparation and translation. A senior Education Ministry source said NTA officials admitted the papers were designed in an "ad hoc manner". The source said officials were "unable to declare the answer keys" because of this process. Another source questioned the claimed involvement of subject experts. "A panel of four to five experts sets a question paper," the source said. "If there was indeed a panel, how were so many questions from the previous year's question papers picked?" The source also asked, "How did the examiners not have answers to the questions they had designed?" A JNU faculty member described the broader concern as "the degree to which automated systems were used to translate, organise and assemble high-stakes national examinations". The faculty member also questioned whether "adequate human academic review" followed that process. NTA director general Abhishek Singh denied that generative AI was used to author the papers. He said there was a 'human review' after the papers were set but did not respond when asked why the errors went unnoticed. What were the irregularities? Students told MediaNama that the three papers contained several irregularities. The English paper reportedly repeated more than 50 questions from an earlier UGC-NET paper. Candidates said some passages and answer options also appeared unchanged. Commerce candidates reported an even larger overlap. One candidate on Reddit said around 80 questions were "literally copy pasted" from December 2024. The Sociology paper had different problems. Students reported misspelt names, garbled terminology and grammatical errors. For instance, George Ritzer appeared as "Putzer", while Talcott Parsons appeared as "Parsow"l and G S Ghurye was printed as "Ghunye". Another student who answered using the Hindi version of the Sociology paper claimed that multiple questions were difficult to understand in the translated paper.