In good news for local and domicile students, private universities in the state have agreed to give 40 per cent of their seats in general degree courses to the government from the 2025-26 academic year.
“Private universities have agreed to share 40 per cent seats in general degree courses from the next academic year,” Higher Education Minister MC Sudhakar told DH, adding that the Karnataka State Private Universities Association (KPUA) has given an undertaking to the government on this.
Currently, this arrangement exists only for professional courses.
Getting private universities to share seats with the government was long-pending, an official said. “These 40 per cent seats will go to students of Karnataka domicile,” the official said.
Karnataka has 27 private universities. There are 33 public universities under which 430 government degree colleges function.
While government-quota seats are subsidised, private universities are in no mood to compromise on this. They want fees to remain unchanged for these 40% seats. “We have agreed to this condition as all private universities have a Fee Regulatory Committee to fix fees every year. We will discuss this in the future,” Sudhakar said.
KUPA president D Jawahar, who is CEO of PES Institutions that runs the PES University, also confirmed that 40 per cent of seats in general degree courses will go to the government. “But they (universities) must conduct a national-level entrance test for that,” he said, adding that the fees will be common for all.
Some officials of the department have raised concerns over finances. “If we get 40% seats from them, we have to follow reservation. In that case, the government has to pay the fees for at least 10 per cent of the students for 3 years. For this, we need to get the Finance department’s clearance,” one official pointed out.