Sharanprakash R. Patil, Minister for Medical Education and co-chairman of the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), Khushbu Goyal, Secretary, Higher Education and H. Prasanna, Executive Director, KEA, during the Common Entrance Test 2026 (UGCET-26) result announcement press conference at Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) Office in Bengaluru on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: ALLEN EGENUSE J.
The results of Karnataka Common Entrance Test (CET) – 2026, the gateway for admission to professional courses including engineering, announced on Saturday, have students from state board Pre-University colleges dominating the top ranks. Students from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools dominated the list of toppers for many years earlier.
Among the top 10 rank holders across all seven streams, a majority are from State board colleges. In the engineering stream, 9 of the top 10 are from State board-affiliated colleges, followed by 8 in B.V.Sc. (Veterinary Science), 9 in B.Sc. (Agriculture), 8 each in Nursing and Yoga & Naturopathy, and 7 each in B-Pharm and Pharma-D. Further, among the top 100 rankers in the engineering stream, 81 are from State board colleges.
This is in contrast to 2025, when seven of the top 10 rankers in the engineering stream were from CBSE schools. The trend across the other six streams was also similar last year. Experts pointed to a significant dip in CBSE Class 12 results this year — from 88.39% last year to 83.29% — in line with the decline in the number of CBSE students among CET toppers.
2.92 lakh students eligible
As per Karnataka Examination Authority’s (KEA) list a total of 2,92,782 students who had taken CET-2026 have become eligible for admissions to various professional courses. Of that, 2,82,603 are eligible for engineering stream, 2,09,220 students for B.Sc. (Agriculture).
Toppers
Tanisha Karthik from R.V. PU College Jayanagar, Bengaluru topped the engineering stream with 99.44% and Nayana Gopi of BASE PU College, Shivanagar, Bengaluru topped five streams including B.V.Sc, B.Sc-Nursing, Yoga and Naturopathy, B-Pharm, Pharma-D with 100% marks. In B.Sc (Agriculture) Ninaad Vasisht from R. V. PU College topped the state with 98.75% score.
Counselling from June 10
Releasing the results, Medical Education Minister Dr. Sharan Prakash Patil said that the CET-2026 Counselling will begin from June 10, 2026. “As decided earlier, we will not wait for NEET results to come. Because of the re-examination, the NEET is delayed this year. We will do counselling for other professional courses ahead of NEET counselling,” he announced.
“Seats for these professional courses that fall vacant after medical seat counselling will be allotted in the subsequent rounds. Eligible candidates will be allowed to enter options,” he added.
This time, pre-round counselling is being introduced for the first time, and candidates who like the allotted seat can join the college or participate in the next first round.
Regarding medical seats, if the candidates who are allotted both All India and the KEA quota seats in the first round and wish to take admission in the All India quota seat, they need not have to pay a penalty for giving up the KEA seat, Dr. Patil said.
Published – June 06, 2026 11:03 pm IST
