Private universities in Karnataka agree to fill private quota engineering seats through uniform entrance test

A file photo of students at a COMEDK exam centre in Bengaluru.

Private universities in Karnataka have agreed to the government’s proposal to fill 40% of private quota seats in professional courses, including engineering, through a uniform entrance test instead of each university conducting separate tests.

The private universities signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the State government in this regard recently. The universities will henceforth consider candidates who qualify either in the CET conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority, JEE, conducted by the National Testing Agency, or COMEDK test, conducted by the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association, for admission to professional courses. Engineering colleges have already called online applications for the academic year of 2025-26.

There are 32 private universities in Karnataka and 17 universities offer various professional courses. Each university conducts a separate entrance test to fill its respective quota seats.

Due to this, students had to write many exams in addition to being financially burdened. To avoid this, the State government held a meeting with private universities chaired by Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar about conducting a uniform entrance test.

In the meeting, the Minister advised the universities to fill their share of seats through some official agency. Otherwise, all the universities were told to form a separate consortium to conduct an examination and fill the seats. Finally, some private universities agreed to fill their share of seats through JEE (Mains) and some universities through COMEDK test.

“It is a good development that all the private universities in the State have decided to fill the seats on the basis of JEE, COMEDK or CET ranks without conducting a separate examination. No private university will conduct a separate examination for professional courses next year and an MoU has been signed in this regard. Due to this, students will not have to write multiple exams for professional course seats,” said Dr. Sudhakar.

D. Jawahar, Pro-Chancellor of PES University, Bengaluru, said, “PES has decided to take students based on CET and JEE. Students who want to apply to our institutions should do so with their ranks in CET and JEE. Based on the applicant’s ranking, we will allot the seats. We have already called for applications. After the CET and JEE (Advanced) results, students can update their ranks. On the basis of these ranks, we will make the merit list of the applicants. Then the students can pay the fee and get the admission done. Meanwhile, if the student gets a seat through CET or JEE and is willing to go to any other college, we will completely refund the fee.”

UVCE seats filled through CET

There is a provision to fill 25% of seats in the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), an autonomous institution of eminence modelled on the lines of the IIT, through the JEE. However, since the processes have not yet started yet, the government has decided to fill the seats based on CET ranking.

Dr. Sudhakar said, “Due to various reasons, this year, UVCE seats are not being filled through JEE ranking. Instead, we will fill the seats based on CET ranking.”