CUET-UG 2026 Revised Schedule: NTA Announces New Dates for Postponed May 28 Exam

The National Testing Agency has issued the revised schedule for the Common University Entrance Test for Undergraduate admissions, CUET-UG 2026, after the papers originally scheduled for May 28 had to be postponed.

In a public notice released on May 27, the agency confirmed that the affected examinations — covering both shifts of May 28 — have been rescheduled to May 31, June 6 and June 7, 2026. Admit cards for candidates appearing on May 31 have already been uploaded to the official portal, with hall tickets for the June 6 and June 7 papers to follow shortly.

For lakhs of candidates writing the country's most consequential undergraduate admission test outside the engineering and medical streams, the revised dates bring a much-needed end to a week of uncertainty.

The new schedule at a glance

Only the May 28 papers have been moved. All other CUET-UG 2026 examinations continue as originally scheduled, and the exam will be conducted in Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode as before.

Why the postponement happened

The decision to defer the May 28 papers followed the Centre's revision of the Eid-ul-Azha (Bakrid) holiday notification, which moved the public holiday on to that date. Holding a national exam — one that requires lakhs of students to travel to designated centres — on a major festival day would have created clear logistical and personal difficulties, particularly for students who observe the holiday or whose travel routes were likely to be affected by it.

Postponing in those circumstances is the right call, even if it means a difficult few extra days for students whose preparation cycles have suddenly had to stretch.

What candidates need to do now

Three things, in order.

First, download the revised admit card. Anyone scheduled for the May 31 paper should head to cuet.nta.nic.in and log in with their application number and password. The earlier admit card carrying the May 28 date is no longer valid; the fresh one shows the new exam date, shift timings and venue details.

Second, wait for the June 6 and June 7 admit cards, which the NTA has said will be released shortly. Candidates appearing on those dates should keep checking the same official portal rather than relying on forwarded WhatsApp messages, screenshots or third-party "alert" links.

Third, verify every detail on the new admit card carefully — date, shift, reporting time, centre address, and the instructions on documents to carry. Reschedulings are often accompanied by venue or shift changes, and it is the candidate's responsibility to read the updated instructions before walking into the exam hall.

A wider credibility moment for the NTA

It is hard to talk about CUET-UG 2026 without acknowledging the larger backdrop. The same National Testing Agency that has now had to revise this schedule is also the agency at the centre of the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak — a scandal that forced the cancellation of the medical entrance exam and drew sharp remarks from the Supreme Court that the NTA has not learnt its lessons from past failures.

That is, of course, a separate matter. CUET-UG's postponement is administrative — a calendar adjustment, not the result of any leak or malpractice — and conflating the two would be unfair. But it would also be naive to pretend that students and parents are not watching every NTA decision with sharper scepticism than they once did. The smoothness of the rescheduled CUET papers, the transparency of communication, the absence of last-minute surprises — all of it will, in that sense, matter beyond just this exam.

The bottom line

For now, the practical news is the schedule. The May 28 papers are now on May 31, June 6 and June 7. The admit card for May 31 is live; the rest will follow.

Candidates should treat cuet.nta.nic.in as their only source of truth in the days ahead. In an exam season already shaken by leak headlines and cancellations, the calmest thing students can do is ignore the noise and trust only the official portal.