Minority Colleges: Want Own Test
Minority professional colleges want to have their own entrance test for engineering and medical admissions next year and they have made this clear to the state government.
The Karnataka Religious Linguistic Minority Professional Colleges Association (KRLMPCA) has been conducting its own entrance tests for undergraduate and postgraduate medical, dental and engineering admissions for its member institutions. On Thursday, the association raised its demand with officials from the Department of Higher Education and Medical Education at a brief meeting at the Vidhana Soudha. Implementation of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006, means that the Common Entrance Test conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority will be held only for government and aided colleges.
For unaided colleges, the Act states that an 'association of all unaided professional educational institutions whether minority or non-minority' should make admissions through a single common entrance test, which is expected to be COMED-K.
Association secretary Shafi Ahmed told Express that the Supreme Court had permitted them to conduct their own entrance test. "The Act will say several things, but we want to continue with our own entrance tests. We have been conducting the tests since 2004 and even the state government had authorised us to do so," Ahmed said.
The association has nine medical colleges, 10 dental colleges and 16 engineering colleges as its members. This includes the likes of Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Rajarajeshwari Medical College, Bangalore Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Ghousia College of Engineering (Ramanagaram) and HKBK College of Engineering. "For social justice, we will cooperate with the government and we expect the same cooperation from them. We will wait for the outcome of December 16 meeting. If the decision of the meeting is not acceptable to us, we will then take a call on what to do," Ahmed said.
An admission overseeing committee headed by former High Court Justice V Jagannathan has been constituted under Section 5 of the 2006 Act. The committee will hold a meeting with college associations on December 16. Meanwhile, an official from the Department of Medical Education maintained that the Act does not provide for more than one entrance test for unaided colleges. "We will have to wait for a decision to be taken in the December 16 meet," the official said.