More than 80,000 students are reportedly set to appear for the Undergraduate Entrance Exam (UGET) conducted by the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK). The application forms are live on the websites www.comedk.org or www.unigauge.com and the last date for applying for the exam is May 2. The exam will be held on June 19 across 150 cities and in about 400 test centres for admissions into BTech and BArch courses in Karnataka in colleges affiliated with the Karnataka Professional Colleges Foundation Trust and Uni-GAUGE member universities.

The exam is conducted by the ERA Foundation on its assessment platform Uni-GAUGE. This year, COMEDK has decided to upscale the services it offers by setting up advanced skill centres for engineering students to explore emerging technologies. This is especially expected to provide skill-based and interdisciplinary education to institutions where students from rural areas suffer from the lack of infrastructure and resources, said the Executive Secretary of COMEDK, Dr S Kumar.

"We plan to establish 8 advanced skill centres all across Karnataka in the following locations (Kalaburagi, Dharwad, Belagavi, Shivamogga, Hassan, Mysuru, Dakshina Kannada and Bengaluru) and each skill lab will support 10 to 12 member institutions. These skill labs will focus on the use of rapid prototyping tools, machine learning and artificial intelligence and developing an innovative mindset in them. Thus establishing relevant industrial exposure which will ensure students are job-ready and provide a pathway for entrepreneurial careers,” he elaborated at a webinar conducted to announce the commencement of applications for the COMEDK 2022 exams. 

The exam will be conducted in two sessions this year. The first will begin at 9 am and end at 12 noon, while the second one will be from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm.