KEA proposes to fix government quota fee for seats surrendered by private engineering colleges, universities

Published 31 July 2026 · education

The Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) will submit a proposal to the government to fix the fees of government quota seats surrendered by private engineering colleges

The Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) will submit a proposal to the government to fix the fees of government quota seats surrendered by private engineering colleges, universities and deemed-to-be-universities in the State, said H. Prasanna, Executive Director of KEA. The KEA will fill the government quota seats in all engineering colleges in the State through CET counselling. As per the consensual agreement with private engineering colleges and Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association (KUPEKA), the colleges have given up 45% of the seats to the government. The remaining 30% seats are filled through the national level COMED-K entrance exam, 15% seats are filled as Non-Residential Indian (NRI) quota and 10% seats as management quota seats.

In the colleges under the Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Professional Colleges’ Association (KRLMPCA) and Association of Minority Professional Colleges in Karnataka (AMPCK), 40% seats are filled as government quota seats, 30% are filled through separate entrance tests conducted by these associations and 20% seats are filled as NRI quota and 10% as management quota seats. Among private universities, 40% seats are given to the government quota. The remaining seats are filled as management quota seats. However, there are no government quota seats in deemed universities and fill all the seats as management quota seats. For the academic year 2026-27, there are about 1,60,281 engineering seats available in the State, of which 75,468 are government quota seats, 32,670 are COMED-K and 52,143 are management quota seats.

However, out of these, every year thousands of private quota and management quota seats remain vacant in private colleges and universities. The State government recently ordered that if private colleges, universities and deemed-to-be-universities, surrender private and management quota seats, they will be allotted through the KEA in CET counselling. As many as 89 institutions surrendered a total of 10,230 seats. According to the government order, the actual fee for the year 2026-27 is ₹87,935 for CET seats in type-1 private engineering colleges and ₹97,825 for type-2 colleges, except university registration and other processing fee. In COMED-K type-1 college, the fee is ₹2,15,000 and ₹3,02,182 for type-2 colleges. The government and 95% of aided engineering colleges fee was ₹44,200.