Karnataka: No surrender of seats after 1st round of counselling, engineering colleges told

Bengaluru: Taking a hard line against the practice adopted by engineering colleges of surrendering unfilled seats, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has decided not to allow institutions to surrender such seats after the conclusion of the first round of seat allotment this year.

The Department of Higher Education pointed out that surrender of seats after the first round, besides inconveniencing students, disrupted the entire counselling process.

KEA reportedly proffered this suggestion at a recent meeting with representatives of private engineering colleges, convened to discuss the fee structure and seat sharing for the 2026-27 academic year.

“The KEA officials took a firm stand on the issue. Private colleges and the government were told that seats surrendered after the first round would not be accepted,” a government official said.

Students already allotted a seat in the first round, were often tempted to try their luck bagging another from the pool of surrendered seats, which disrupted the counselling schedule, a KEA official told DH.

One college surrendered more than 700 seats after the first round last year, the official added. “Most of these seats were for Computer Science and allied subjects. These seats were filled with considerable difficulty,” the official said.

Furthermore, the consensual agreement between the government and private colleges stipulates that the institutions cannot surrender seats after the first round. The fee for surrendered seats will be the same as charged for regular seats allotted from the government’s quota, officials added.

More than 15,000 engineering seats found no takers last year, including those surrendered by colleges after the first round, officials said.