Hi,

The purpose of conducting both the exam is the same as both the tests are conducted to test the eligibility of the candidates for colleges and universities level lecturership and for Junior Research Fellowship Award. But there is some difference between the exams:

- CSIR NET Exam is conducted only for 5 subjects of science streams that are: Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Earth atmospheric ocean and Planetary Sciences. While on the other hand, there is a total of 81 subjects in which you can take your exam.

- The Eligibility Criteria is different for both the Exams- For UGC NET Exam- Candidates should have a post-graduation degree (in UGC NET Subjects) with 55% marks for the general category.

Eligibility for CSIR NET Exam ; M.Sc. or B.Tech./B.E./B.S. 4 Year programme or an equivalent degree, with a minimum of 55% marks for general.

UGC NET and CSIR NET exams have differences in various terms. UGC NET Exam is conducted by the University Grants Commission while CSIR NET exam is conducted by Human Resource Development Group (HRDG) of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR).

Primarily these both exams are having differences in two areas i.e. Subjects and Exam Pattern.

UGC NET Exam is conducted for almost all subjects of every stream while CSIR NET exam is organized only for the science stream subjects. This is the major difference between both exams.

CSIR NET Exam has only one paper of 3 hours while UGC NET has two papers with the time duration of 3 hours. Each paper of UGC NET has its own specific duration.

The CBSE UGC NET qualified candidates to get a chance to work with NET Coordinating Institutes whereas CSIR NET qualified candidates have to work with the CSIR Research Laboratories.