Mysore/Mysuru: The Karnataka-State Eligibility Test (K-SET)-2021 for Assistant Professorship posts in Degree Colleges of the State, was held today at 11 District Headquarters spread across the State in accordance with Government Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and tight Police security.

University of Mysore (UoM) is the Nodal agency for the conduct of K-SET and candidates who qualify this become eligible to get shortlisted for Assistant Professor or Lecturer posts in Karnataka Colleges and Universities.

The exam was held in 41 subjects with two papers — one in the first session and the other in the second session. The exam was earlier postponed twice  this year due to COVID crisis.

Nearly 84,000 candidates had registered for this year’s exam, which took place at 11 District Headquarters spread across the State — Mysuru, Bengaluru, Belagavi, Mangaluru, Dharwad, Tumakuru, Kalaburagi, Shivamogga, Davanagere, Vijayapura and Ballari — with all COVID guidelines in place.

In Mysuru, the exam was conducted in 29 centres, including Maharaja’s College, Gopalaswamy College near Nanjumalige Circle, TTL College in Saraswathipuram and D. Banumaiah’s College. More than 15,000 candidates had chosen Mysuru as their centre, while the rest had opted for other places in the State.

UoM Registrar Prof. R. Shivappa said that according to preliminary data received from several centres, more than 90 percent of the candidates who had registered, appeared for the exam. The exam papers were dispatched to all the centres at all the places yesterday itself under tight Police security and under the supervision of a Nodal Officer, who was specially assigned for the purpose, he said and added that initial reports suggested that the exams went off  safely, with all candidates asked to follow COVID Appropriate Behaviour and maintain other regulations in place.

The City Police had clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of Cr.PC banning movement of unauthorised persons in 200 mts radius around all the exam centres. As such, only the candidates and the exam personnel were allowed to enter the centre after a check. Also, all photocopy shops in the vicinity of all the centres were ordered to shut down for the day.