No COMEDK entrance test for undergraduate engineering courses from next year

The entrance test conducted by the Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) for undergraduate engineering admissions will be merged with the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) conducted by the state government from the next academic year.

This decision was taken at a meeting between state government and private engineering college managements on Wednesday.

With this, the KCET will become an all-India exam.

Representatives of the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association (KUPECA) for whom the COMEDK used to conduct the entrance test have agreed to go for a single entrance test. However, the Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Private Colleges Association (KRLMPCA) did not agree.

"There will be no COMEDK entrance test from next year for undergraduate engineering courses," KUPECA technical committee chairperson Manjunath Bhandary said. "The test and seat allotment will be done by the Karnataka Examinations Authority," he said.

"With the COMEDK test scrapped, we will extend the KCET to the national level and sign an agreement with the KUPECA," Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan said.

Seat sharing and fees will be as per the consensual agreement signed between the government and the colleges.

Every year, around 70,000 students register for the COMEDK test - most of them from Karnataka - for seats in more than 180 private engineering colleges.

The KRLMPCA said that they will continue to have their own entrance test to fill the seats at 12 minority institutions in the state.

According to sources, the higher education department will soon hold a meeting with private universities, too, on them adopting KCET for admissions.

That a single entrance test should be held for engineering courses was proposed in 2021 by the Admission Overseeing Committee (for professional courses).

At present, besides KCET, there are entrance tests of COMEDK, KRLMPCA and the Association of Minority Professional Colleges in Karnataka (AMPCK). Also, each private university has its own entrance test.