The results of the Common Entrance Test (CET), which were announced here on Tuesday, spelt good news in more ways than one for the top five rank-holders in the medical/dental and engineering streams. Higher Education Minister R.V. Deshpande, at the press conference to announce the results, also declared that the State government would reimburse the fees of the top five in the streams, provided they choose a college here in the State.
“We have just decided that if the top five merit students in PCB and PCM (Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Maths) respectively (10 students overall) accept admissions in Karnataka, all their fees will be reimbursed by the government,” the Minister said. He implied brownie points for the government as the CET results were being announced early this year. “Last year, they were announced on June 6.”
Of the 1.39 lakh students who applied for the CET, conducted on May 1, 2 and 3, only 1.37 actually appeared. Of these, a majority became eligible for B. Tech. (Agriculture), followed by engineering, B.Sc. (Agriculture), B. Tech. (Food), B.VSc. (Veterinary Science), Indian System of Medicine and Homoeopathy (ISMH) and medicine.
According to the statistics provided by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), which conducts the CET, 34,247 appeared only for PCM, 2,581 only for PCB, and over 1 lakh for both. Of the 1.37 lakh students who appeared, 73,906 were boys and 63,654 were girls.
While 38,494 rural students wrote the exam, 9,848 qualified for medicine, 23,790 for engineering, and 22,335 for B.Sc. Agriculture.
