If private universities in the State agree, the government is ready to conduct a national level Common Entrance Test (CET) for management quota engineering seats, Higher Education Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan has said. The State government had recently announced that from next year, COMED-K entrance test will be merged with CET for engineering courses.
After a meeting here on Thursday with the Chancellors, Vice-Chancellors and Registrars of private universities, he said, “Government quota engineering seats in private universities are being filled through the state CET rank. But all state private universities are conducting separate entrance tests for 60% of the management quota engineering seats. Multiple entrance tests are causing stress to the students. So, in case the state private universities agree, the government will conduct a pan India level CET and it will help students across the country.”
Reacting to this, PES University chancellor Jawahar Doreswamy, said, “We are conducting separate CET for the engineering management quota seats because the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) is not conducting a national level CET. We have no objection if the government itself is conducting the pan India level CET.”
During the meeting, the minister also said there are allegations that some private universities are collecting additional fee for the government quota engineering seats. “The managements should not entertain such unethical practices,’’ he said.
