Pvt colleges won't lose unfilled seats

The undergraduate engineering seats in the government quota unfilled at the end of the upcoming CET counselling will be given to private colleges to fill them at their discretion, this year too.

The government has agreed to not remove a clause in the consensual agreement signed previous year, which entitled private colleges to the seats unfilled at the end of counselling. The Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) recommended to the government that unfilled seats should not be given to colleges.

The seats can be left unfilled or given to diploma-holders under the lateral entry scheme, the KEA had advised.

The reason for such a recommendation was the belief that many colleges indulged in seat blocking — a scheme in which meritorious students are first lured by touts to pick seats and surrender them later. The seats thus surrendered are lapped up by colleges who fill them at their will.

The colleges came up with a solution - they wanted the government to reimburse the full fees of the unfilled seats if they were not given to them. They threatened to drag the government to court if either of demand was not met.

At a meeting with officials of the Department of Higher Education on Tuesday, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda agreed to the demand, well-placed sources said.

The agreement is now likely to be signed by Saturday, according to Pandurang Shetty, Vice-President of Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association. As many as 181 colleges are with the Association. Seven more colleges are likely join.

The seat matrix for each discipline and college is to be released by July 10.

All other terms and conditions will remain the same, except for the 10 percent increase in fees announced earlier. Students will have to pay Rs 33,000 and Rs 36,900 (two slabs) for an engineering seat, Rs 38,500 for medical, and Rs 27,500 for a dental seat.

Sharing ratio unchanged
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The seat-sharing ratio, too, will remain unchanged. In engineering, 45 percent seats will go to the government, 30 percent to the Consortium of Medical, Engineering, and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (Comed-K), 15 percent to NRI quota, and 10 percent to the Institutional Preference (IP) pool.

In medical, the government and the Comed-K will get 40 percent seats each, 15 percent will go to the NRI quota, and five percent for the IP pool. In dental, the government will get 35 percent seats.

At least 10 colleges, mainly in interior areas, however, want to give more seats to the government as they struggle to attract students.

The government share in these colleges is likely to be more than the minimum agreed.