Students wishing to pursue MBA or MCA courses in the State will have to take only the Postgraduate Common Entrance Test (PGCET) instead of multiple exams for admissions under both government and management quotas. The test, to be conducted by the consortium set up by the State government this year, will be held on June 30.
At a press conference here on Tuesday, M.K. Sridhar, consortium member, said the test was the only one for admissions to MBA and MCA seats in the State. “This will avoid duplication and reduce the number of tests that a student has to take.”
Prof. Sridhar said that only test scores would be allotted to students who want to obtain seats under the management quota, while government-quota seat aspirants would have to participate in counselling conducted by the consortium for seat selection. Non-Karnataka students were eligible to select only the management-quota seats and seats surrendered by the management, he said.
Last year, the All India Council for Technical Education made it mandatory for students across the country to write the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) for government and government-quota seats, but found few takers. Subsequently, students had to write the Karnataka Management Admission Test (KMAT) as well for admissions to management-quota seats. With a large number of seats left vacant, State universities were also forced to hold their own entrance tests and conduct counselling to fill up the seats.
20,000 seats on offer
Around 20,000 seats in over 130 colleges under the government and management quotas would be available, Prof. Sridhar said. The fee structure for government-quota seats was Rs. 50,000 a year, the same as last year.
While it will be an online application process for the exam, counselling will be conducted in Bangalore and Belgaum between July 12 and 20.
PGCET 2014 is being conducted by a consortium of universities: this year by Rani Channamma University. Vice-Chancellor of the university B.R. Ananthan is the chairman and Executive Director of the Karnataka Examinations Authority Rame Gowda is its secretary.
For clarifications, call the helpline 09483505203 or write to pgcet2014@gmail.com.
