BENGALURU: To prevent seat blocking and streamline the admission process for professional courses, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has decided to issue seat confirmation slips instead of admission orders to students securing seats this year. The decision comes in response to issues where many students would download admission orders but not enrol, or pay fees without completing the confirmation process, leading to confusion and vacancies. This move aims to ensure that only those who genuinely intend to join a course complete the process, preventing seats from going unutilised.
Under the new system, once a student pays the prescribed fee, they will receive a seat confirmation slip instead of an admission order. They must then visit the allotted college for verification, where facial recognition technology, which KEA introduced recently, will be used to authenticate their details before the admission is finalised.
For the past, thousands of seats have been left in limbo as many students would either download admission orders without joining or pay the fees to block the seat. Last year, 14,500 students in the first round and 5,500 in the second round did not select whether they accepted or rejected their seats. This created confusion over whether these seats should be reallocated or if the students should be allowed to continue in subsequent rounds. To address this, KEA introduced seat confirmation slips, KEA officials said.
The move also comes in the wake of last year’s engineering seat-blocking scam, where students’ IP addresses were allegedly misused to manipulate seat allotments. While the investigation is ongoing, KEA has decided to fill any vacant government quota seats in private colleges after the final round of counselling.
This year, KEA will also be making facial recognition mandatory for all CET counselling steps. Students will be required to log in using both face authentication and an OTP-based system. This technology has already been introduced during the application stage and will soon be extended to Diploma Common Entrance Test, Post Graduate Common Entrance Test, and recruitment exams.