Bengaluru: As approved by the Director of Medical Education, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) on Saturday announced the seat matrix for the academic year 2018-19. Marking a sharp decline of a whopping 770 seats compared to the previous academic year, this year, only 5,920 seats are available to students in 48 medical colleges.
According to sources in the medical education department, last year, there were 6,690 seats from 54 medical colleges. On the contrary, the number of dental seats has shot up by 446 across Karnataka compared to the previous year. As many as 2,754 seats are available in 38 dental colleges. Officials revealed that a drop in the number of seats is attributed to directions by the Medical Council of India (MCI) which refused to permit admission of students to some colleges citing inadequate infrastructure and teaching faculty.
According to KEA officials, NEET-2018 rank holders are eligible to make optional entry for medical and dental courses till July 10 before 5 pm. The aspirants are allowed to exercise their priority options after the verification of their documents at KEA.
KEA has already announced the seat matrix for about 17,000 seats in various engineering colleges. The final matrix on engineering seats is likely to be published by Monday with the addition of more colleges. However, with KEA deciding to allocate medical seats first, allocation of engineering students is likely to be delayed and might drag on till August first week.
