KEA to extend counselling for UG courses till Nov-end

The seat allotment process for undergraduate professional courses will go on up to the end of November as the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has extended the last date for admissions to November 30.

With this, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) is thinking of conducting at least two extended rounds of counselling to fill the seats for the 2020-21 academic year.

As per the regular calendar of AICTE, the admissions to engineering courses should be completed by October 30. However, considering the Covid-19 pandemic and delay in conducting the entrance test, the authorities extended the admission deadline this year.

Sources in KEA told DH that currently the document-verification process has started in the state and they are waiting for details of NEET scores of the eligible candidates from the National Testing Agency (NTA).

"This year, extending the admission deadline was much needed as the entrance test itself was delayed for months," said an official.

According to officials, conducting document verification online is not as easy as offline.

Document verification

"We should be extra careful while verifying the documents digitally because identifying fake certificates is easy when it's offline. It takes more time online," the official said.

The KEA is planning to conduct at least two extended rounds of counselling to fill the remaining seats. "With the deadline extended, we can conduct extended rounds to fill seats, especially for engineering courses," says officials.

However, this extension of the deadline for admissions to first-year undergraduate professional courses will delay the commencement of academic year at least by one and a half month.

"There is no clarity yet about conducting physical classes, but as the admissions deadline itself is extended, the commencement of classes for the first semester will be delayed," said the principal of a private engineering college in Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, private college management representatives say AICTE should consider giving grace reporting time for students, in case they are from other states.