BENGALURU: The Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) announced that it has decided to
conduct a combined counselling process for candidates seeking admission to engineering, medical, dental, agriculture, veterinary, pharmacy and nursing courses for the academic year 2023-24.
KEA Executive Director S Ramya said this is an important reform which would streamline the counselling process. The decision has been taken in the best interest of students and is expected to eliminate unduly delay in the process of seat allotment, she added.
Ramya also explained that earlier, there would be separate rounds of counselling and seat allotment for each course. However, many students used to participate in both engineering and medical seat allotment, and there were chances of a few applicants securing seats in both disciplines. This would lead to denial of opportunities to other eligible candidates. In such cases, the Authority had to cancel engineering seats of candidates who had also secured medical seats in the second round.
As per the new method, if a candidate is interested in participating in the seat allotment process for engineering, medical, dental, agriculture, veterinary, pharmacy and nursing courses, then he/she should go through the respective seat matrices and enter the seats in the option entry sheet, after taking into consideration the fees, courses and interest.
In the first round of allotment, seats will be allotted to individual candidates based on merit, reservation and option entry done by individual candidates. There is a possibility of candidates securing both engineering and medical seats in the first round. But the candidate should choose only one of the allotted seats and proceed for fee payment. In case the admission is not updated on the college portal, the seat will be considered vacant and taken up for allotment in the second round. The candidate can also hold on to one of the allotted seats, she explained.