Race for professional course seat toughens

The race to obtain a seat in a professional college this year through the Common Entrance Test (CET) appears to have become all the more difficult. This year, a higher number of students have qualified in all streams — engineering, agriculture, veterinary sciences, B. Pharma, and Pharma-D — when compared with the previous year.

Despite the Common Entrance Test (CET) not being the qualifying exam for admissions to medical and dental courses, more students appeared for the test this year. As many as 1,92,905 candidates appeared for the CET this time as against 1,80,508 last year.

In the results announced on Friday, 1.46 lakh students made the cut for engineering courses, an increase by 16.8% from 2017. This trend was seen in other streams too. For instance, 1.13 lakh students are eligible for agricultural sciences counselling, whereas last year the number of eligible students was 95,767. Another 1.15 lakh students made the cut for veterinary sciences counselling as against 94,478 in 2017.

The number of students eligible for B.Pharma and Pharma-D courses saw an increase by 16.67% this time.

The principal of an engineering college in Bengaluru said although 1.46 lakh students had qualified for engineering courses this year. Last year, there were only 52,338 government and government-quota seats apart from the 12,076 seats surrendered by the managements.

“Last year, although there were more candidates and fewer seats, over 21,000 seats went vacant after the counselling conducted by the KEA. This goes to show that many write the CET as one of their multiple options. Besides this, many candidates choose expensive seats through the COMEDK quota as they are picky about the colleges and the stream,” the principal said.

A press release by the KEA stated that if the results of any students are withheld because they have not obtained their class 12 marks card or proof of date of birth, such candidates have to send the documents to keauthority-ka@nic.in.

Document verification from June 5

The Karnataka Examinations Authority will start document verification from June 5 at 16 centres across the State. KEA authorities on Friday said they were trying to verify some documents online, but documents such as those issued by the Education Department were yet to be digitised. In all likelihood, students will have to visit one of the KEA centres to complete their document verification process.

Mobile-friendly website

This year, the KEA has decided to display the cut-off list on a mobile-friendly version of their website. Cut-offs for categories, colleges and disciplines for the last three years will also be displayed. Officials said this could serve as a reference for students to make choices before the option entry process.

Free seat for top five rank holders

Candidates who have secured top five ranks in engineering, agriculture, veterinary, B. Pharma or Pharma-D courses will not have to pay for their education if they select a seat with their CET ranks. The State government will reimburse the fees for the entire duration of the course.

KEA to publish fee structure components

To ensure that students are not asked by colleges to pay fees over and above the amount paid to the KEA after securing admission, the Medical Education Department will ask colleges to submit all the components of the fee structure. The information will be uploaded on the KEA website said V. Manjula, Additional Chief Secretary of the department.