COMEDK To Discontinue From Next Year; Admissions Only Based on KCET

After the meeting of the state government and the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association (KUPECA) the decision to scrap COMEDK from 2023 has been taken. Read details here.

COMEDK to merge with KCET from 2023

On Wednesday, Karnataka higher education minister CN Ashwath Narayan chaired a meeting which resulted in an unexpected decision. From 2023, COMEDK will not be held and all engineering and medical admission in the state will be based on KCET scores. Therefore, solely the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) will be held for allotting seats in the private and unaided engineering colleges also.

Until now, COMEDK UGET was held at the national level for admission to around 190 unaided private engineering colleges in Karnataka. COMEDK is the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka that conducts undergraduate entrance tests (UGET). It is an autonomous body entrusted with the responsibility to organise UGET by KPCF (Karnataka Professional Colleges Foundation – Medical & Dental) and KUPECA (Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association). 

COMEDK 2022 was held on June 19, and 57000+ students attended the test. Provisional answer keys have been released and the final answer key will be available on June 30. The result will be out on July 5. This year the admissions will be unbothered and will be based on COMEDK UGET scores. However, from next year, it is to be merged with KCET and will be hed as an all-India exam.

COMEDK Disagrees

COMEDK has disagreed with this decision as per reports, as they were not part of the meeting.

Also, it is reported that KUPECA president Panduranga Shetty was not present at the meeting. He has stated that KUPECA cannot speak on behalf of COMEDK about its continuation of UGET exams and COMEDK can continue to exist as long as it decides otherwise.

Why COMEDK is being Merged with KCET?

According to Manjunath Bahandary, a representative of KUPECA stated, "It was only a handful of good colleges that were benefiting from ComedK. In other colleges, many seats were going empty as students jumped from ComedK to CET or vice-versa. The counselling schedules were not going hand in hand. It is better we have a single exam.”

This move will be also a big relief to the students as they do not have to write multiple entrance exams anymore.

It has been also reported that the fee for CET seats will be increased by 10% for the year 2022-23.

COMEDK was started in 2004-2005 for admission in engineering, medical and dental courses offered by the colleges that are part of the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association (KUPECA). But after NEET became compulsory for MBBS admissions, COMEDK has only conducted UGET for admission to the engineering courses until this year.