CET held twice but 65% seats remain vacant for BMS and BBA this year

Of the 1.05 lakh seats available, only 36,812 have been filled, leaving 68,249 (64.96%) vacant. Colleges have raised concerns over the sharp dip in admissions for these traditionally popular undergraduate programs.

This year, the Class 12 results were declared in early May to allow enough time for admissions. However, for BBA and BMS courses, delays occurred due to the conduct of two CETs.

“By the time Centralised Admission Process (CAP) rounds began, private universities had already completed admissions, and many students had chosen other options,” said the principal of a city college offering BMS, further adding that delays have created serious concerns among colleges.

Earlier, admissions to these courses were based on Class 12 marks. Since last year, however, after BBA/BMS programs came under the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), CET became mandatory.

Anticipating the repeat of last year’s vacancies, the CET Cell conducted two entrance exams, following demands by some colleges which feared that low awareness about the new process might again lead to vacancies.

“There were demands for two CETs due to confusion over the new rules,” said a CET Cell official.

Yet, by the time admissions began in late August, many students had already enrolled elsewhere. Even integrated BCA-MCA courses suffered, with only 16,990 of 48,393 seats filled (64.89% vacant).

For BBA-BMS, just 19,822 admissions were recorded out of 56,668 seats, leaving 36,846 unfilled.

Experts believe timely admissions after the first CET could have prevented this. Some also pointed to the confusion caused by colleges renaming BMS courses to B.Com in Management Studies.

“After CET based admissions were made mandatory, many universities in the state allowed affiliated colleges to change the nomenclature of the course to continue conducting admission based on Class 12 marks. Many students preferred the renamed course. Whereas many also took admission to private universities which had earlier admission cycles,” noted a retired principal.

High demand for law (3-year)

As opposed to significant vacancies reported in many courses, the three-year law degree course for the academic year 2025–26 has received a good response, a steady trend of the past three years — despite an increasing number of seats indicating increasing demand, according to the State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell.

This year, there were 23,859 total seats under Central Admission Process (CAP), (Economically Weaker Section (EWS), and institutional rounds combined from 218 colleges.

At the end of the admissions, 22,917 students were admitted, leaving only 942 seats vacant.

The LLB course recorded over 96 per cent admissions, according to data shared by the CET Cell, with all the available 19,895 CAP seats being allotted.

Out of a total of 2,205 management quota seats, 2,204 were filled, leaving only one vacant seat. However in the EWS category out of 1,678 EWS seats, only 818 were filled.

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