The 2025 admission cycle for professional courses in Karnataka, based on CET and NEET rankings, has unveiled significant and surprising trends in student preferences. While traditional favourites like MBBS and dental programmes have solidified their appeal, several other streams, including engineering and nursing, are grappling with a stark lack of interest, leading to thousands of vacant seats.
Winners of the 2025 Admission Season
Medical and dental courses emerged as the clear frontrunners. Data from the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) confirms that all 10,559 medical (MBBS) and 2,709 dental (BDS) seats were filled. The complete uptake for dental courses marks a strong comeback, as the stream had struggled with 1,398 vacant seats in 2022 and 199 in 2023. This is the second consecutive year of full occupancy for BDS.
Counselor Raghavendra Hegde pointed out that with NEET becoming increasingly competitive, students are less inclined to repeat the exam. "Those getting good ranks and BDS seats prefer to accept them," he explained.
Another notable gainer was farm sciences. The intake for these courses rose from 2,866 to 3,056 this year, with vacant seats dropping to just 36 from 53 last year. This is the lowest vacancy count for the stream in four years, indicating a growing interest among aspirants.
Streams Facing a Downturn and Record Vacancies
In stark contrast, several other professional courses witnessed a dramatic decline in popularity. The most alarming figures came from nursing, where a staggering 21,664 seats remained vacant—an increase of nearly 5,000 empty seats from 2024. This surge in vacancies occurred despite the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences initially planning to block new colleges; 3,000 new nursing seats were nevertheless added in a single year.
Engineering courses faced their highest vacancy level in four years, with 16,218 seats going unfilled. This includes over 9,000 vacancies in computer science and related programmes. The vacancy count has been steadily rising from 12,236 in 2022 to 16,218 in 2025.
The Ayush sector (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy) saw a steep fall in demand. Vacant seats skyrocketed to 995 in 2025 from 449 in 2024. Within this, Yoga naturopathy vacancies increased from 125 to 174. Ali Khwaja, founder of Banjara Academy, noted a paradigm shift: "Earlier, if students did not get MBBS, they would jump to other streams like Ayush. Now, there are so many other alternatives. For instance, forensic sciences are trending. Ayush is no longer the Plan B."
Other courses that struggled include:
- Pharmacy: Vacant seats nearly doubled from 401 in 2024 to 791 in 2025, despite an increased intake. Khwaja observed that the six-year Pharm D programme has "fallen out of demand."
- Veterinary Sciences: After years of near-full occupancy (just 1 vacancy in 2024), the course saw 24 vacant seats this year. KEA Executive Director H Prasanna attributed this to extended NEET counselling due to court cases, and the authority plans another counselling round to fill these seats.
What These Shifts Signal for the Future
The 2025 admission data paints a clear picture of student pragmatism and changing career aspirations. The pressure-cooker environment of NEET is pushing students to secure a confirmed seat in allied medical fields like dentistry rather than risking another attempt. Simultaneously, the sheen appears to be wearing off from once-guaranteed career paths in engineering and pharmacy, possibly due to market saturation and evolving industry demands.
The massive vacancies in nursing raise serious questions about policy planning and the addition of new seats without assessing ground-level demand and working conditions. The KEA's data serves as a crucial indicator for educational planners, institutions, and students, highlighting the need for dynamic course structures and better career counselling aligned with future opportunities.
