UGC - NET/JRF in Tourism - The Easy Way to Crack It.
National Eligibility Test (NET) to determine eligibility for Assistant Professorship and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) to determine the eligibility for the Assistant Professorship and Scholarship – is conducted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to improve quality in teaching and research.
National Eligibility Test (NET) to determine eligibility for Assistant Professorship and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) to determine the eligibility for the Assistant Professorship and Scholarship – is conducted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to improve quality in teaching and research.
Clearing both NET and JRF will
make a candidate eligible for appointment of Lecturers/Assistant Professor in
Colleges and Universities.
Qualifying JRF will give eligibility
for the candidate to apply for Ph.D. in any University and avail Scholarship
with in a time frame of Two Years from the date HE/SHE has cleared the JRF. JRF
is awarded for a period of three to five years on fulfillment of certain
conditions.
The candidates have to ensure
that they have opted for both Assistant Professorship and Junior Research
Fellowship in the application form.
The best part of UGC NET/JRF test
is that, it is being conducted twice in a year in the months of June and
December. The candidates generally get confused between the CSIR NET and UGC
NET.
CSIR NET is conducted by UGC for
Sciences and UGC NET for Social Sciences. Usually there will be a gap of one
month between these two exams both in conducting the test and announcing the results.
University Grants Commission (UGC)
has started conducting a common exam for both Assistant Professorship and
Junior Research Fellowship from 1990.
As of now there are 99 subjects
in whom UGC conducts the NET exam and Tourism is 93rd subject.
Tourism NET/JRF is conducted from
the year 2005 only.
The Notification for December NET is given in the months of Sep-Oct and for June NET in the months of Mar-Apr.
Pattern of NET Exam:
UGC NET Exam consists of three
parts –
Part – I of 60 Multiple Choice Questions for 100 Marks (50 Questions
have to be attempted).
Each question carries 2 marks.
Candidate should make sure that he
answers only 50 questions from the 60. Only first 50 will be considered in case
of answering more than 50 questions.
Tip: I would suggest the candidates to answer first paper form
the end because at the beginning the questions are generally lengthy and it
would eat away the time. Questions at the end are straight questions and if the
candidate does not know the answer, he can move on with the next question. This
is the best way to save some time for calculation part.
Part – II of 50 Multiple Choice Questions for 100 Marks. Each
question carries 2 marks.
Part – III of 75 Multiple Choice Questions for 150 Marks. Each
question carries 2 marks.
Happy news is that the syllabus for
both Part – II and Part – III is same.
The total marks for which NET exam conducted
is 350. A candidate has to score just 200 and above to get eligibility for
Assistant Professorship and more than 230 to get eligibility for Junior
Research Fellowship. However this cut off changes from time to time based on
the competition.
Earlier candidates were supposed to write descriptive in part
- III of the NET exam along with multiple choice questions in Part – I and Part
– II till 2011. From 2012, all the three papers in NET are made Multiple Choice
Questions without Negative Marking. If Proper attention is paid in preparing for
the test, Clearing NET/JRF is not a big deal.
Eligibility Criteria:
- General Category – 55% in Masters or Equivalent.
- OBC/SC/ST/PWD – 50% in Masters or Equivalent.
- Appearing/appeared exams of final year, Masters’ Degree.
- Appearing/appeared exams of third semester, Masters’ Degree.
- If appeared earlier, must clear Masters’ Degree within two years of declaration of result with 55% (General) and 50% (OBC/SC/ST/PWD)
- Ph.D. Degree holders before Sep 19th 1991 are given relaxation of 5% marks (55% to 50%) for applying.
- Candidate must appear the subject of Masters’ Degree only.
- For Assistant Professorship – there is no upper age limit.
- For JRF – 28 years, relaxation of 5 years for OBC/SC/ST/PWD/Women.
Syllabus:
Paper – I
Paper II and Paper – III - Subject Sequence – 93 – Tourism Administration
and Management.
How to Prepare for the Exam:
Preparing for Tourism – NET is not a herculean task, it is
easy and adding up to this there are no proper Materials available for the
same.
Paper – I
This is a common paper for all the subjects conducted by UGC –
NET and the best way to prepare for this paper is to buy a book online and prepare
simultaneously along with the preparation for Paper – II and Paper – III. Upkar
and Arihant publications are advisable.
Arihant Publication – UGC – NET General Paper
Upkar Publications – UGC – NET General Paper
Paper – II and Paper –
III
Even though there are few publishers like Truman series,
Cosmos Bookhive publishers and Arihant publications, they were not successful
in framing the books according to the syllabus. In spite of their efforts in writing
books, these books do not fulfill the primary objective of covering all the
topics for the exam and become more skeptical in subjects like tourism. When a
candidate is preparing from these books, knowingly or unknowingly HE/SHE will
be driven in to the topics which are not needed for the exam and the candidate
is wasting time in reading unnecessary things. Keeping this in view I have
prepared few presentations which are short and crisp and will guide the
participants…
Chapter – 01, Tourism
Introduction.
Chapter – 02, Tourism
Resources.
Chapter – 03, Accommodation
and Hotel Industry.
Chapter – 04, Tourism
Transportation.
Chapter – 05, Travel
Agency and Tour Operations Business.
Chapter – 06, Tourism
Marketing.
Chapter – 07, Tourism
Planning.
Chapter – 08, Research
Methodology – prepare from C.R. Kothari
Chapter – 09, Tourism
Management.
Chapter – 10, Tourism
Finance.
Miscellaneous
India – General Knowledge
Tourism Attractions in
India
World Heritage Sites of
India
The Best book that would guide the candidates for preparing
for Tourism – NET is “Tourism – Principles and Practices” by Swain and Mishra.
Important Topics out of syllabus from where questions are asked regularly:
- Current affairs like “Safaigiri Singathon and Awards”, World Tourism Rankings”.
- Tourism Organizations, their year of establishment, Head Quarters, CEOs.
- Countries, Capitals, Currencies, official carriers, Airports and their codes.
- India – States, Capitals, air carriers, Airports – Names, Tourism Taglines.
- India – Railway Zones, Head Quarters, National Highways, Water Highways.
- Luxury Trains and Toy Trains of India.
- India – Havelis, Forts, Palaces, Chaitya Grihas, Mountain passes.
- India – Museums, Gardens, Caves, Ports, Beaches, Islands, Waterfalls.
- India – Tribes, Classical Dances, Folk Dances, Rivers, Geographical Indicators.
- Popular Tourism Books and their authors.
- India – Famous Shrines – Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Jain, Buddism and Christian.
- Famous Hotels and their chains in India.
- Popular Personalities and their contribution to Tourism.
- Important Five Year Plans, Days and Dates.
- India – List of Cruise Ships.
- India – World Heritage Sites and Tentative List.
Scope:
Clearing Tourism NET will provide
an opportunity to apply for Assistant Professorship in any college or University
if there is a Vacancy. The NET qualified candidates will be directly called for
an interview on application. NET Qualified candidates are not provided with any
scholarship and Government is in a plan to do so in near future.
JRF qualified candidates are
eligible to apply for Ph.D. under any professor/University within two years
after the declaration of result.
Universities also do conduct separate
entrance examinations for Ph.D. and a candidate has to obtain single digit rank
to get a seat. Central Universities provide a stipend of Rs. 8000/month if a candidate
registers for Ph.D. through university entrance.
It is advisable to go for Central
universities through their separate entrance examination because it would help
the candidate in terms of funding and exposure. Candidates can also prepare for
the NET exam even after joining central universities.
Critics:
I am not the right one to comment on the quality of the test
conducted by CBSE now but yes there have been many critics of the NET. People who
clear the NET praise it and People who do not clear call it nonsense. But however
UGC has made it mandatory to clear NET/JRF for recruiting candidates in to
teaching and research. Even though there is no negative marking or descriptive
testing, I would suggest going through the process for eligibility criteria. There
have been many initiatives form the government to improve the quality of test from
time to time. There may be negative marking in near future too.
But to my opinion neither a Ph.D. nor a NET/JRF can
accurately become a yard stick for quality of teaching.
For detailed information candidates can log on to:
About the NET:
NET – Important Dates, Results,
Eligibility Criteria and filling the application form
--Ramakrishna Kongalla--
