Bengaluru: In a change from past practice, the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) will conduct a combined counselling for CET and NEET students, seeking admission to Engineering/Medical/Dental/Agriculture/Veterinary/Pharmacy/Nursing courses for the academic year 2023-2024.

Until now, there used to be separate rounds of counselling and seat allotments for the above courses. Several students used to participate in counselling for both engineering and medical seats, with some landing seats in both the disciplines. This often led to a roadblock for other eligible aspirants, leading the KEA to cancel the Engineering seats of those students  who had also secured Medical seats.

KEA Executive Director S. Ramya said that the combined counselling will streamline the counselling process and eliminate undue delay in seat allotment. In the first round, the student, apart from entering only one option in the choice entry screen, will also be allowed to retain one of the allotted seats (either Engineering or Medical) and participate in the second round. In the second round of seat allotment, only one seat will be allotted out of the options entered by the candidate, Ramya said adding that if a medical seat is allotted in the second round, the student will not be eligible to participate in the mop-up round.