Now, KEA comes up with combined seat allotment for professional courses

In an important student-friendly reform, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has decided to go for combined seat allotment for undergraduate professional courses this year.

This includes Engineering/Medical/Dental /Agriculture/Veterinary/ Pharmacy/Nursing courses for this academic year and the measure is aimed to avoid inconvenience caused to students.

In a press release, KEA Executive Director Ramya S said, “Previously, there used to be separate rounds of counselling and seat allotment for the above courses. However, many students used to participate in both engineering and medical seat allotments and there were chances of a few applicants securing seats in both disciplines. This would lead to denying opportunities for other eligible candidates in the respective rounds. In that case, the Authority had to cancel engineering seats of those candidates who had also secured medical seats in the second round.”

Under the new system, if any candidate is interested to participate in the seat allotment process for Engineering/Medical/Dental/ Agriculture/Veterinary/ Pharmacy/Nursing courses, then he/she should go through the respective seat matrix and enter the seats in the option entry after taking into consideration the fees, courses and his/her choice of interest, reads the release.

For example, if a candidate decides to try for the medical seat as the first option and consider engineering, if the medical seat is not allotted then he/she should enter choices of medical seat as top priority and engineering seat as later priority in the option entry.

If the candidate decides to try for engineering as first choice and would consider architecture, pharmacy and nursing courses if an engineering seat is not allotted then he/she should enter engineering courses as the choice of top priority and architecture, pharmacy and nursing courses as later priorities in the option entry sheet.

In the first round of allotment, seats will be allotted to individual candidates based on merit, reservations and option entry by individual candidates. There is a possibility of candidates securing both engineering and medical seats in the first round. Then, the candidate should choose only one of the allotted seats in the choice entry screen and proceed for fee payment through challan downloaded online and generate an admission order. He/she should report to the college within the due date and update the same in the college portal.

If the admission is not updated in the college portal, the seat will be considered vacant and taken up for allotment in the second round. The candidate also can hold on to one of the allotted seats (engineering or medical) and participate in the second round by exercising ‘Choice-2’.

However, mop-up round candidates, who were allotted Engineering/Agriculture/ Veterinary/Pharmacy/ Nursing and other courses, should cancel the seat after paying a due penalty to participate in medical and dental mop-up rounds.

Likewise, candidates, allotted medical/dental seats in the second round, should cancel the seat after paying a due penalty to participate in engineering and other allied courses mop-up round.