Students irked with Karnataka government's decision to up nursing seats after counselling

Bengaluru: The state government’s decision to increase the intake for nursing courses and also to award recognition to new colleges after the third round of counselling has irked students aspiring for nursing seats, who were forced to take up other courses this year.

After the third round of seat allotment through Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) this year, the Department of Medical Education approved over 1,500 seats to at least 90 nursing colleges and also gave recognition to seven new colleges.

The KEA subsequently conducted an extended mop-up round to allot new seats. However, only 350 students were able to attend the extended round seat allotment. The remaining seats have been converted into management quota. All the 1,500 additional wseats sanctioned were under the government quota.

“The seats left vacant after the extended round seat allotment will be automatically converted into management,” said a KEA official.

Raising objections to the decision by the government to enhance seats after the third round, a student said, “I wanted to study nursing, but as there was no government quota seat at the college of my choice, I was forced to take up another course. Now, the government has added a few more seats to that college.”

Another student said, “There was no information about the extended round. Hence, many of us were forced to take up other courses as there were no seats available at quality nursing colleges. Now, we cannot withdraw admissions as we will not get the refund.”

The department officials, however, said that they grant permission based on the recommendation by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS).

The KEA officials said, “This was a similar issue even during last year’s seat allotment. Nursing seats were added even after the completion of all the rounds. We were forced to conduct another round, but of no use for students as they had already taken admissions to other
courses.”