December 2026 schedule at a glance
As checked on 28 October 2026, the latest published schedule located for Joint CSIR-UGC NET is the December 2026 cycle. The NTA public notice dated 7 October and the December information bulletin give online registration from 7 October through 5 November 2026, closing at 11:50 p.m. The regular last date for a successful fee transaction is also 5 November at 11:50 p.m. The notice then provides a late-submission window from 6 to 9 November, with the final successful late-fee payment by 9 November at 11:50 p.m. The bulletin calls the dates tentative and says applicants will be informed if changes are made. Treat the dates as the published schedule, not a guarantee against a later notice.
The official notice says the exam date range covers three days but does not map each of the five subjects to a particular day. It says the centre, date and shift are shown on the admit card. Candidates should not assign themselves to a day from a coaching calendar, subject-code list or another candidate’s admit card. Subject-day allocation and personal centre information require the candidate’s own official city/admit-card update.
Fee, late fee and correction timing
The December 2026 bulletin lists base application fees of ₹1,150 for General; ₹600 for General-EWS and OBC-NCL; and ₹325 for SC, ST, PwD, PwBD and Third Gender applicants. Payment gateway or bank service charges may apply separately. The notice specifies a ₹500 late fee for the late-submission window. A candidate who misses the regular date should compare the current portal instructions and total payable amount before starting a late submission; the late-fee amount is additional to the base category fee, not a replacement for it.
Corrections are scheduled online from 10 through 12 November 2026, up to 11:50 p.m. The bulletin describes this as correction of particulars in the submitted application form and directs candidates to use the website only. The existence of a correction window does not establish that every field can be changed or that a fee will be refunded. Before submitting, check the subject, category and spelling of the candidate’s name against the supporting records. If a correction is necessary, consult the portal’s live list of editable fields and any separate fee instructions when the window opens.
The schedule table is useful for planning, but the portal notice is the live source if NTA publishes a revision. The official CSIR-HRDG home page showed a December 2026 application link and was last updated on 27 October 2026 during this check. No later December schedule revision was visible on that index then. This is a bounded freshness observation, not a claim that no amendment can appear later. Recheck the official CSIR-NET site before paying or travelling.
Exam days, shifts and unannounced milestones
The December 2026 examination is scheduled on 19, 22 and 27 December. The notice gives two shifts: 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, and 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The duration is 180 minutes. The application notice lists the examination dates and shift hours but leaves the individual candidate’s shift and centre to the admit card. Until the candidate-specific document is released, keep all three scheduled dates in view and avoid non-refundable travel plans that assume a particular subject-day mapping.
The bulletin labels the advance city intimation date and admit-card download date “to be announced later.” It also says that the display of recorded responses and answer keys will be announced later on the website and that the result declaration will likewise be announced later. These are genuinely unannounced as of the source check; no date should be inferred from the exam window or from the June 2026 result timetable. The result and answer-key schedule for a completed earlier cycle is historical evidence, not an automatic forecast for December.
NTA’s notice advises applicants to keep checking its website for updates. A practical sequence is to finish the application before the deadline, save the submitted form and payment record, review corrections when that window is open, then check the official portal for city intimation and admit card. After the exam, use the cycle-specific answer-key and response-challenge notice to understand dates and procedure. For a future session, return to the same official source family for a new bulletin. The December 2026 dates and fees should not be copied into a 2027 application plan as if they were already published.
How to use the schedule safely
Record times in Indian Standard Time as displayed by the portal and complete payment before the final minute. A form saved in a browser is not the same as a completed submission: confirm that the portal shows successful submission and a transaction receipt. During the late window, confirm whether the candidate’s category and payment method have been accepted before leaving the page. Keep screenshots or downloaded confirmations for personal records, but use the official account status if a document appears inconsistent.
There are three different kinds of date in this schedule. Application and correction dates are actions controlled by the candidate. The exam days and shifts are the published operational plan, subject to the bulletin’s tentative-date note and later official notices. City intimation, admit card, response display, answer key and result are milestones for which the bulletin had not yet supplied dates. Treat those categories differently: act before a known deadline, monitor an announced event window, and do not invent a date for an unannounced milestone.
If a later NTA notice changes a date, the later official notice should be checked for exactly what it changes: application end, late payment, correction period, examination days, or a candidate-facing event. A date extension does not automatically alter eligibility, subject choice or the rest of the paper scheme. Keep a copy of the notice and its publication date so the schedule you followed can be identified. On the source snapshot reviewed for this page, the application window and December exam schedule remain the published plan; the candidate-specific city and shift details and post-exam milestones are not yet dated.