a mess called CET

It’s again that time of year when Karnataka CET makes it to the daily headlines. Actually this phase starts from around December end or January, when both the government and private colleges wake from their sound sleep and start fighting about seat sharing and other issues of admission in professional degree colleges.

I heard of KCET (as it is called in past) somewhere around December of 2000. I was preparing for my engineering entrance exams and my guide suggested me to try my luck in KCET too (as there are some really good colleges in Bangalore). I wrote it and as my destiny had written for me, I landed in Bangalore in August 2001. My whole life was changed. I finished my BE from RVCE in June 2005 and am working in a MNC in Bangalore since then.

2001 was the last time CET was held without any problem. KCET was the season of big tourism for Karnataka. All the hotels were booked long in advance. Everyone made money from it. It was a really good business season for Bangalore specially, as most of the outsiders come to Bangalore to give exams and then for counseling and then finally joining college.

2002 onwards CET started to become a mess. Supreme Court gave some ruling where private unaided colleges were allowed to take care of their admission. Many of the private colleges in Karnataka took this decision and wanted to conduct exam and admission for the seats they had to offer. Let ups try and understand why they wanted to do that.

As far as I remember these are the annual fees that were applicable for admission in engineering colleges in 2001:

• Free seats for Karnataka students – Rs 8000 and Rs 12000 (there were two categories, I don’t remember exactly how it worked)
• Payment seats for Karnataka students – Rs 44000
• Seats for Non-Karnataka students –Rs 44000

Other than these there were some seats reserved by colleges for NRI sponsored candidates (which you can also call as donation seats or MQ, the management quota). These seats were filled as early as January (CET was not even notified by then) and the fees varied depending on college and branch opted. And it could be anything in tunes of Rs 15 Lac for the whole course.

Now the seats were shared between college and CET body. Around 50 % seats were booked as free seats for Karnataka students. Around 15 % for non-Karnataka students, around 10 for Karnataka students (payment seats) and rest 15% for college to fill by MQ. If we do a basic math, it’s so clear that the colleges were losing a lot of money because of this arrangement.

Clearly conducting their own examination (and then admission) was their golden opportunity. But they faced one small problem here. only some colleges like RVCE, PESIT, BMS, MSRIT etc could attract these outsider MQ students.
For others thinking about a MQ student was distant dream. Many of the colleges, outside Bangalore never had all their seats filled during CET days also. Now on their own, filling all the seats would have been a daunting task. So they took the middle path. They form another group called COMEDK and tried to conduct their common exam and counseling. They wanted to fix their fee and other money matters on their own, and being in such a big group looked safe to them. To please the government, they offered to give them 25 % seats to be used in its own way.
This is where the state government messed up the whole thing. It kept fighting for more seats. As many of the colleges were run by bug politicians, all the times discussions were for seat sharing. It never tried to find solution for the admission policy and fee structure. After all an engineering degree in Rs 10000 annual fees is cheaper than any other place in India. Years after year, they kept fighting, when it became unavoidable, they settled for a temporary solution. That year’s problem solved and actual problem pushed to be solved (?) in next year.

Last year CET did not give any seat to outside candidates. Their explanation is that "they should serve Karnataka needs first". Such a sad thought. But seeing that many other states in north also do not allow outsiders through state-conducted exams, it can not be blames as Karnataka’s biggest crime. But face remains that, like other states in south, Karnataka has a large number of engineering and medical colleges. And all the seats can not be filled by Karnataka students alone. Bangalore gained its metro status after arrival of all the young students and professionals from around the country. Karnataka can not, on its own, keep up to education standards. It will have to allow everyone to come and contribute.

And to end with, let me say little about this year’s CET status. Government has already conducted CET for seats in government aided colleges. COMEDK will go ahead and conduct its exam later this month for seats in unaided colleges. The seat-sharing formula is still under dispute here. To add to the mess, a small group of minority based institutions have already sold forms for their own exams. Still it’s not sure if this exam will have any meaning.

God help the young guns of country (or should I say Karnataka?).