Karnataka: Delay in KCET counselling concerns parents, students. COMEDK official clears stance

In Karnataka, delays in the counselling process for admission into engineering colleges by the Karnataka Education Authorities (KEA) have once again troubled parents and aspiring students.

While the seat allotment through the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) for undergraduate engineering courses in the state seems to be delayed this year, the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK), which conducts the admission process for around 20,000 private engineering seats in Karnataka, has already wrapped up the first round of its counselling process.

Parents expressed that this results in their wards being forced to opt for a private seat.

A member of Voice of Parents Association Karnataka, on the basis of his interaction with aggrieved parents, told EdexLive, “Ideally, COMEDK counselling should follow the CET counselling, and only then any private institute should go ahead with their in-house admission process, in the interest of students and parents. In India, it is only as per the law that education is not-for-profit but the reality is something else entirely.”

“Parents have to book seats for their children by shelling out high amounts of money, anywhere from Rs 3.5 lakh and Rs 12 lakh per annum. This is only due to the purposeful delay in counselling by the state education department. Parents are coughing up large amounts of money, especially for high-demand fields like Computer Science Engineering,” he added, on condition of anonymity.

It is believed that the delay in KCET counselling could be due to the ongoing National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) row in the Supreme Court, as the KEA, which conducts the seat allotment process for both engineering and medical seats in the state, needs to wait for medical All India Counselling — ultimately leading to delay in engineering admissions as well.

However, it is to be noted that in the previous years as well, similar concerns have surfaced as COMEDK counselling preceded CET counselling.

Addressing the issue Dr S Kumar, Executive Secretary, COMEDK, shared, “We have sorted it out, making it clear that COMEDK is a pan-India exam, unlike KCET. Earlier, when COMEDK and KCET counsellings were in sync, we used to lose close to 3,000-4,000 pan-India candidates due to delays in the counselling process. The only concern now is that if a Karnataka student gets a college through COMEDK, and subsequently gets a government seat later through CET, they will stand at a disadvantage financially.”

Kumar said that any domicile candidate from Karnataka who gets a KCET seat will be provided a full refund from the respective college.

“We have given a written assurance that in such instances when a candidate presents proof of allotment of seats through KCET, we will refund 100 per cent of the money. Only if after the commencement of the course someone cancels their seat, then the student will be charged as the college cannot fill the vacancy for that particular academic year. I hope the KEA also keeps this in mind and facilitates the students accordingly,” he added.