What happens after the KUCAT-CBT rank list, and which of KU’s lists is the actual admission offer?

The rank list and the programme-wise score lists are not offers; KU says so on both. Offers come from the School of Engineering’s admission notices: a first list on 4 August 2026, a second on 11 August, a third on 14 August, a reservation-quota list on 18 August and an Expression of Interest list on 19 August.

Kathmandu University publishes five kinds of list between the test and a seat, and only the last three are offers. The rank list, published on 28 July 2026 as a 110-page PDF, carried 4,673 names with four columns: KUCBT number, name, the programme applied for, and rank. It ranks everyone who sat the test, both schools together, and its header says it exists so that you can change programme, which the portal allowed on 29 and 30 July. Of those 4,673 candidates, 1,671 had applied for Computer Engineering, 636 for Civil and 377 for Mechanical. On 3 August the programme-wise score lists followed, one per programme by CBT score, each headed "This is not an admission offer". The offers came as the School of Engineering’s admission notices: the first on 4 August with document verification from 5 to 11 August, a second on 11 August, a third on 14 August, the reservation-quota list on 18 August and the Expression of Interest list on 19 August.

Who applied for what, from the rank list itself

The rank list prints each candidate’s applied programme, so counting it gives a figure Kathmandu University does not publish as a total: demand by programme before the change window. The engineering side of the university drew 3,945 of the 4,673 candidates.

Scroll the table sideways for Share.

The highest rank printed is 4,738 against 4,673 names, and only 944 distinct rank values appear, because candidates on the same score share a rank and withheld candidates keep a number. One candidate in three wanted Computer Engineering, and Computer, Civil and Mechanical together were 57% of the entire test.

The programme-wise score lists

Each programme’s list of 3 August is sorted by CBT score, with ties listed in KUCBT-number order and, the notice says, broken at admission by +2 marks or grade. The Civil Engineering list carries 627 names, from a top score of 1,474 to a bottom of 232, with a median around 658. The Computer Engineering list carries 1,209 names, from 1,607 down to 270, median around 708. Set against the 1,671 who had applied for Computer on the rank list, the programme-wise list is 462 shorter, which is the visible effect of the two-day programme-change window and of withheld candidates.

The five lists, in the order they arrive

1. Rank list (28 July). Everyone who sat, ranked by score, with the programme they applied for. Not an offer. Withheld candidates had until 31 July to present original documents.

2. Programme change (29 to 30 July). Log in to the portal and switch programme. Geomatics scholarship applicants file a separate form in the same window.

3. Programme-wise score lists (3 August). One per programme, by CBT score. Not an offer. Architecture’s list waits for the aptitude test; Geomatics fills its scholarship quotas first and publishes the rest on merit.

4. Admission notices from the School of Engineering (4, 11 and 14 August). These are the offers. Appear in person at Block 10, Room 106 with originals, get verified, then pay. The second and third notices publish only if seats are vacant.

5. Quota list and Expression of Interest list (18 and 19 August). The Reservation Quota Committee’s list, and then a rolling EOI round for programmes with unfilled seats, which the first notice says can run even during the first list for under-subscribed programmes.

What the quota list shows

The reservation-quota list of 18 August is a letter from the Reservation Quota Committee to the Dean with a per-programme list attached. Its Computer Engineering page names 33 candidates, every one marked "Recommended for Admission", and 15 of the 33 have no KUCAT number printed at all. The documents do not say what those candidates sat instead. It is the one list in the cycle where admission is visibly not a function of the CBT score, and it is worth knowing it exists before reading the merit lists as the whole picture.

Counts are from parsing the text layer of the 28 July rank list and the Civil and Computer programme-wise PDFs; one rank-list row lost its programme field in extraction and is counted in the total but not in any programme. Medians are computed, not published. The quota-list observation is from the rendered second page of the 18 August notice. The EOI notice of 19 August lists nine programmes for verification on 20 and 21 August.

Last reviewed 2 September 2026 by Ram Raj Thapa, Admissions Officer, Imperial College of Engineering. Every figure on this page is cited to the document it came from.

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Related answers

• What were the KUCAT-CBT 2026 dates, and how long does the Kathmandu University cycle take?

  The notice went out on 17 June 2026, registration ran 19 June to 9 July, the tests ran 16 to 26 July across six centres, the rank list came on 28 July and the first admission list on 4 August. The quota and Expression of Interest lists followed on 18 and 19 August.

• How does the KUCAT-CBT entrance exam work, and how is it scored?

  Two hours, 120 multiple-choice questions, 40 each in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics (or Biology). The test adapts: a right answer raises the next question’s difficulty, a wrong one lowers it, and harder questions are worth more. Scores run from 0 to 2220.

• How much does a BE at Kathmandu University cost in 2082/83?

  Rs 9,60,000 across four years for every BE programme, and Rs 10,97,000 across five for Architecture, on KU’s own 2082/83 fee structure. Rs 2,21,000 was payable on admission day in August 2026, and the fee has risen from Rs 8,50,000 for the 2022 batch.

• Where does IOE publish the entrance result and the merit list?

  Both on entrance.ioe.edu.np. The 2083 list carried 7,179 names in alphabetical order with a rank against each and no marks. Campus admission then runs on a separate portal, admission.ioe.edu.np.