Parents, Students Call for Govt Action on 18,500 Vacant COMEDK Seats

Quick Summary

• 18,500 vacant engineering seats: Over 18,500 engineering seats under COMEDK remain unfilled in Karnataka this year, including around 300 seats at top Bengaluru colleges and popular courses like Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence.
• Fee escalation: Unclaimed COMEDK seats automatically transfer to management quota, raising fees by 400-700%.
• Reservation structure: engineering college seats are divided as KCET (45%), COMEDK (30%), and NRI/management quota (25%). KCET fees are government-regulated, but COMEDK charges higher prices, with management quota being costliest.
• Parent concerns on fairness: Parents argue that the current rules benefit private institutions financially while disadvantaging students who can’t afford elevated costs. They propose transferring vacant COMEDK seats to KCET or creating a single-window system for more transparency and equitable access.
• Timeline issues: Parents suggest aligning admission schedules of KCET and COMEDK to avoid pushing students towards expensive options. They recommend prioritizing state-quota allotments in counselling processes before mop-up rounds address leftover vacancies.
• Colleges’ defense of the system: Private colleges say vacancies reflect affordability challenges rather than systemic flaws sence many families opt for cheaper government-regulated KCET over pricier COMEDK.

Indian Opinion Analysis

The large number of vacant engineering seats under Karnataka’s elite education quotas reflects both economic constraints among families and inefficiencies in seat allocation mechanisms between KCET and COMEDK streams. The issue warrants consideration as unfilled slots eventually flow into high-cost management quotas-a shift that raises accessibility concerns while benefiting institutions financially.

Calls for synchronized admission timelines or transparent single-window systems offer a logical solution to ensure fair access for students across categories without inflating fees artificially through systemic loopholes-a point highlighted by parent representatives citing specific colleges like BMS Engineering in Bengaluru.

While private colleges defend their practices citing affordability gaps among applicants, improving alignment between state processes could mitigate financial stress faced by aspirants while addressing vacancy-related inefficiencies collectively across all fee brackets.

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