Students competing for engineering seats in private universities will no longer have to sit for multiple entrance tests. Instead, from the 2021–22 academic year, there will be a single entrance test for admissions to 17 private universities in the State, said sources.
The Department of Higher Education convened a meeting with representatives of private universities on Friday. According to sources, the State government took this initiative after the Admission Overseeing Committee recommended a single entrance test to save students the hassle of appearing for multiple examinations.
A source who attended the meeting said all the universities agreed to this model.“We are glad that the universities agreed to hold a common test. But logistics and modalities still have to be worked out,” said the source.
Currently, students appear for the Common Entrance Test (CET) and Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) to qualify for admissions in government and private colleges. Besides this, the Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Professional Colleges Association (KRLMPCA) and the Association of Minority Professional Colleges in Karnataka (AMPCK) also conduct their own tests. Each private university also conducts its own entrance examination for private quota seats, while the 40% government quota seats of these university are filled based on the CET ranks.
Aspirants elated
Engineering aspirants, who have had a stressful year on account of the pandemic, are elated with this move and feel it will help them save a lot of time and money. Kiran R., an aspirant, said his brother had appeared for more than half a dozen entrance tests to get a seat. “As all private universities will conduct one test, I will only have to appear for this test and COMEDK and CET,” he said.
