Amid Covid-19 scare, KEA concludes first round of CET seat allotment

Amid Covid-19 pandemic, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has successfully completed the first round of allotment of seats for admission to various undergraduate engineering courses under the Common Entrance Test (CET).

Among the students who secured seats in the first round of allotment, 12,000 students have reported to their respective colleges for admission. Similarly, about 1,000 students have also rejected/returned seats allotted during the first round.

According to the schedule put out by the KEA, Tuesday was the last date for students who have been allotted with the seats in the first round to report to the colleges for further admission. Data accessed by DH from KEA revealed that about 28,000 students are yet to report and most of them have opted for the second round (Holding on to the seat allotted in the first round and looking for a good college in the second round).

“The general trend is that at least 50% of these 28,000 students will retain their seats that were allotted during the first round of counselling,” a KEA official said.

Interestingly, about 1,000 students have returned the seats allotted to them in the first round. “The students who have returned the seats are those who have already got seats under IIT-JEE or Comed-K. The returned seats will be added to the pool again during the second round allotment of seats,” the official clarified.

This year witnessed a considerable increase in the number of engineering seats compared to previous years. According to the data, more than 56,720 seats available for allotment suggesting 1,000 seats more than the previous year. Similarly, the number of candidates, eligible for admission to engineering courses, has also increased this year.

A total of 1,53,470 students are eligible for admission to various engineering courses this year as against 1,40,957 students last year.