KCET counselling delay affecting other schedules

It’s been a month since the results of Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) 2021 were announced, but the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has not yet published the schedule for counselling, which could affect the academic calendar.

This delay is also causing inconvenience to all other institutions, including the Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) and private universities, which wait for the KEA’s schedule to decide their counselling dates.

KCET 2021 results were announced on September 20 and the KEA is still verifying candidates’ documents. According to the KEA schedule, document verification will be completed on October 28. KEA has identified 28 engineering colleges in the state for physical verification of documents.

Meanwhile, COMEDK is planning to start the registration process from November 18 and is waiting for the KEA to announce the counselling schedule. “If we conduct counseling before KEA, then there are chances of students surrendering seats and opting through KCET due to the fee factor. This is why we prefer to allot seats after the first round of KCET seat allotment,” said Dr S Kumar, executive secretary, COMEDK.

Prof M R Doreswamy, chancellor PES University, who has written to the principal secretary of Higher Education Department demanding speeding up the counselling process, told DH, “Students and parents will benefit if KCET begins counseling. The delay may disrupt the 2021-22 academic calendar of professional and degree courses.”

However, the commencement of the academic activities for the first year engineering students has already been delayed. According to information available from Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), the academic year was supposed to begin from September. “Even if the counseling begins from November 1, it would take at least a week’s time for the first round to end and we could expect our classes to begin only from mid-November,” said an official source from VTU.

Meanwhile, VTU vice chancellor Prof Karisiddappa has decided to write to KEA authorities. “I will write to KEA authorities requesting them to announce the schedule for option entry. According to the earlier discussions, the option entry would begin from October 28,” said the VC.

According to directions from All India Council for Technical Education, VTU has to conduct an induction programme for the first 21 days.