More students qualify for medicine

The results of as many as 1,07,820 students, who had written the Common Entrance Test (CET) for professional courses on April 27 and 28, were announced on Monday.

It has been a role reversal of sorts this year as compared to 2010. While more students have qualified for medical/dental courses, the engineering stream has got fewer students who qualified.

In 2010, only 4,942 candidates were eligible for medical/dental courses. But the number has gone up drastically this year to 13,197. The change has been attributed to more students doing well in Biology, the subject crucial for these streams. As opposed to 2010, when only 5,547 candidates had secured a distinction in the Physics, Chemistry, and Biology (PCB) combination, the figure stood at 7,186 this year. Besides, the number of students who scored between 50 and 84.99 percent increased from 28,768 in 2010 to 36,443 in 2011.

While 73,600 students were eligible for engineering courses in 2010, only 64,963 candidates qualified in 2011.

Minister for Higher Education V S Acharya, at a press conference on Monday, attributed the drastic reduction to the recent decision of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to increase the eligibility percentage. The statutory body for technical education raised the percentage from 45 to 50 percent for general merit students and from 40 to 45 percent for SC, ST, and OBC candidates in the qualifying examination.

As many as 11,903 candidates had scored between 40 and 44.99 percent (reservation category students), whereas 9,105 students (general category) had made the grade between 45 and 49.99 percent in 2010. The difference of 8,000 (between last year and this year) should be seen in this context, Acharya said. The exclusion of electronics and computer science subjects from the qualifying examination also affected the rank list, he added.

‘Spot ranks’ were given to eligible candidates, without disturbing the ranks/merit order, after it emerged that some of them did not figure in the list, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) said.

In total, 960 ‘spot ranks’ were assigned in medical/dental, 4,420 in engineering, and 4,016 in the Indian System of Medicine/Homoeopathy (ISM&H) courses.

As many as 728 students are eligible for architecture courses and 54,804 for ISM and H courses. The seat selection process for special categories will start on June 9, 2011, whereas counselling for medical/dental courses, as scheduled in the ‘CET, 2011 brochure,’ will commence on June 20, 2011. No separate merit list has been prepared for Jammu and Kashmir candidates. But they can attend the counselling as notified.

If the result of a student has been withheld or is not announced for want of qualifying examination marks or proof of date of birth, the same would be published if the photocopies of the said documents are submitted June 2, 2011 onwards. Fresh ranks will be assigned if II PU marks change after revaluation.

The top rank in medical/dental and ISM & H streams was bagged by Ramya R, a student of MES PU College, Malleshwaram, Bangalore. Ramya scored 95.556 percent in PCB in CET and her score in PUC was 99.333 percent. The first rank in engineering went to Aditya Gaonkar P, a student of Vijaya Composite PU College, Jayanagar, Bangalore, whereas the first rank in architecture went to Shreya Daffney of Poornaprajna PU College, Udupi.