The best engineering colleges in Kerala, ranked by closing rank

Not an opinion poll. Every ranking here comes from one measurement, the rank at which each seat ran out in KEAM 2026, cut by college and by branch, with the method spelled out.

By Krishna Sangeeth KS1 September 20265 min read

Search for the best engineering colleges in Kerala and you will get a dozen lists that cite nothing.

This one is built from a single published number. After each allotment the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations releases a last rank table: the rank of the final candidate admitted to every course, in every college. Allotment runs strictly in rank order, so that rank is the point at which demand for a seat ran out. No one is surveyed, and no college can lobby it.

The figures here are from the second phase allotment to engineering courses for KEAM 2026, published on 20 July 2026. A third phase followed, so ranks will have loosened a little since. The full method is below.

The colleges

Ranked by the median State Merit closing rank across each college’s branches.

#	College	Median · demand
1	College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.Government · 8 branches	1,546100
2	T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.Government · 8 branches	3,32979
3	Model Engineering College, ErnakulamGovernment-controlled · 7 branches	4,28273
4	Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur.Government · 8 branches	5,24067
5	Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, KothamangalamGovernment · 7 branches	5,73065
6	Government College of Engineering, KannurGovernment · 5 branches	6,17663
7	Govt. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Tech., Kottayam.Government · 6 branches	6,36962
8	Government Engineering College Barton Hill, ThiruvananthapuramGovernment · 5 branches	7,02359
9	Government Engineering College, PalakkadGovernment · 6 branches	8,19755
10	N S S College of Engineering, PalakkadGovernment · 6 branches	8,53554
11	S C T College of Engineering, ThiruvananthapuramGovernment-controlled · 6 branches	8,70254
12	Government Engineering College, KozhikkodeGovernment · 6 branches	8,72754
13	Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing · 9 branches	10,98347
14	College of Engineering, ChengannurGovernment-controlled · 4 branches	11,04747
15	Muthoot Institute of Technology and Science, ErnakulamSelf-financing · 9 branches	13,75341
16	Federal Institute of Science and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing · 7 branches	14,39140
17	Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Food Technology, TavanurGovernment · 3 branches	18,68033
18	LBS Institute of Technology for Women, ThiruvananthapuramGovernment-controlled · 6 branches	19,07333
19	University College of Engineering, Kariavattom, ThiruvananthapuramGovernment-controlled · 3 branches	20,86830
20	SCMS School of Engineering and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing · 9 branches	22,73228
21	College of Engineering, AdoorGovernment-controlled · 5 branches	23,67127
22	College of Engineering, CherthalaGovernment-controlled · 4 branches	24,64726
23	Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology, ThiruvananthapuramSelf-financing · 7 branches	25,35425
24	Amal Jyothi College of Engineering, KottayamSelf-financing · 12 branches	25,63025
25	M E S College of Engineering, KuttippuramSelf-financing · 7 branches	26,47524
26	College of Engineering, Thalassery, KannurGovernment-controlled · 7 branches	28,43122
27	College of Engineering Perumon, KollamGovernment-controlled · 6 branches	28,54422
28	Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing · 9 branches	28,74222
29	Christ College of Engineering, ThrissurSelf-financing · 8 branches	28,97621
30	College of Engineering, AttingalGovernment-controlled · 4 branches	29,53221
31	LBS College of Engineering, KasaragodGovernment-controlled · 8 branches	30,53320
32	College of Engineering, Karunagappally, KollamGovernment-controlled · 4 branches	31,13519
33	T K M Institute of Technology, KollamSelf-financing · 7 branches	31,25419
34	St Josephs College of Engineering and Technology, PalaiSelf-financing · 9 branches	32,19219
35	Saintgits College of Engineering, KottayamSelf-financing · 12 branches	34,65117
36	Jyothi Engineering College, ThrissurSelf-financing · 8 branches	37,01415
37	Sahrdaya College of Engineering and Technology, ThrissurSelf-financing · 9 branches	37,07815
38	M E A Engineering College, VengoorSelf-financing · 9 branches	38,05014
39	College of Engineering, VadakaraGovernment-controlled · 5 branches	38,26614
40	Mar Baselios Institute of Technology and Science, ErnakulamSelf-financing · 7 branches	40,05213
41	Vidya Academy of Science and Technology, ThrissurSelf-financing · 6 branches	40,13813
42	College of Engineering, TrikaripurGovernment-controlled · 6 branches	40,94012
43	College of Engineering, MunnarGovernment-controlled · 4 branches	41,35712
44	Toc H Institute of Science and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing · 9 branches	41,45212
45	Vimal Jyothi Engineering College, KannurSelf-financing · 9 branches	42,12711
46	College of Engineering Muttathara, ThiruvananthapuramGovernment-controlled · 5 branches	42,30011
47	Viswajyothi College of Engineering and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing · 8 branches	42,39111
48	College of Engineering, Kallooppara, ThiruvallaGovernment-controlled · 5 branches	43,50210
49	College of Engineering Kidangoor, KOTTAYAMGovernment-controlled · 5 branches	45,00410
50	Institute of Engineering and Technology, MalappuramGovernment-controlled · 6 branches	45,5379

Top 50 of 128 colleges, by median State Merit closing rank across their branches, KEAM 2026 second phase. Demand is that median rescaled 0 to 100 across the whole field, so the tightest college scores 100; see the method. Branch spread for the leading colleges is in the next table.

Spread inside a college

A college is not one number. These are the tightest and loosest closing ranks inside each of the leading fifteen.

College	Hardest branch	Easiest branch	Spread
College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.
College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.	584Computer Science and Engineering	6,381Industrial Engineering	10.9×
T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.
T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.	1,596Computer Science and Engineering	8,758Civil Engineering	5.5×
Model Engineering College, Ernakulam
Model Engineering College, Ernakulam	1,595Computer Science and Engineering	9,182Mechanical Engineering	5.8×
Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur.
Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur.	947Computer Science and Engineering	11,741Production Engineering	12.4×
Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam
Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam	2,286Computer Science and Engineering	11,829Civil Engineering	5.2×
Government College of Engineering, Kannur
Government College of Engineering, Kannur	3,561Computer Science and Engineering	11,535Civil Engineering	3.2×
Govt. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Tech., Kottayam.
Govt. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Tech., Kottayam.	3,149Computer Science and Engineering	11,841Civil Engineering	3.8×
Government Engineering College Barton Hill, Thiruvananthapuram
Government Engineering College Barton Hill, Thiruvananthapuram	3,694Electronics and Communication Engineering	10,673Civil Engineering	2.9×
Government Engineering College, Palakkad
Government Engineering College, Palakkad	3,552Computer Science and Engineering	11,765Civil Engineering	3.3×
N S S College of Engineering, Palakkad
N S S College of Engineering, Palakkad	3,594Computer Science and Engineering	12,308Instrumentation & Control Engg.	3.4×
S C T College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram
S C T College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram	5,711Computer Science and Engineering	18,619Mechanical Engg. (Automobile)	3.3×
Government Engineering College, Kozhikkode
Government Engineering College, Kozhikkode	4,538Electronics and Communication Engineering	11,788Civil Engineering	2.6×
Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, Ernakulam
Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, Ernakulam	5,818Computer Science and Engineering	16,392Mechanical Engineering	2.8×
College of Engineering, Chengannur
College of Engineering, Chengannur	9,492Computer Science and Engineering	14,854Electrical and Electronics Engineering	1.6×
Muthoot Institute of Technology and Science, Ernakulam
Muthoot Institute of Technology and Science, Ernakulam	8,224Computer Science and Engineering	25,033Civil Engineering	3.0×

The tightest and loosest State Merit closing rank inside each of the top 15 colleges, and the ratio between them. A spread of 10× means the college's least wanted branch closed ten times further down the rank list than its most wanted one.

By branch

Branch	Rank	College	Closing rank
Computer Science and Engineering128 colleges
Computer Science and Engineering128 colleges	1	College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.Government	584
	2	Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur.Government	947
	3	Model Engineering College, ErnakulamGovernment-controlled	1,595
	4	T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.Government	1,596
	5	Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, KothamangalamGovernment	2,286
Electronics and Communication Engineering118 colleges
Electronics and Communication Engineering118 colleges	1	College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.Government	601
	2	Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur.Government	1,331
	3	T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.Government	1,878
	4	Model Engineering College, ErnakulamGovernment-controlled	2,064
	5	Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, KothamangalamGovernment	3,083
Mechanical Engineering99 colleges
Mechanical Engineering99 colleges	1	College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.Government	2,323
	2	Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur.Government	4,267
	3	T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.Government	6,120
	4	Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, KothamangalamGovernment	9,159
	5	Model Engineering College, ErnakulamGovernment-controlled	9,182
Civil Engineering96 colleges
Civil Engineering96 colleges	1	College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.Government	4,984
	2	Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur.Government	8,100
	3	T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.Government	8,758
	4	Indira Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing	9,999
	5	Government Engineering College Barton Hill, ThiruvananthapuramGovernment	10,673
Electrical and Electronics Engineering90 colleges
Electrical and Electronics Engineering90 colleges	1	College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.Government	1,307
	2	Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur.Government	2,601
	3	T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.Government	3,349
	4	Model Engineering College, ErnakulamGovernment-controlled	4,282
	5	Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, KothamangalamGovernment	5,730
Artificial Intelligence and Data Science36 colleges
Artificial Intelligence and Data Science36 colleges	1	Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing	8,990
	2	Muthoot Institute of Technology and Science, ErnakulamSelf-financing	14,525
	3	LBS Institute of Technology for Women, ThiruvananthapuramGovernment-controlled	17,097
	4	Amal Jyothi College of Engineering, KottayamSelf-financing	25,066
	5	College of Engineering Perumon, KollamGovernment-controlled	25,927
Computer Science and Engineering (Cyber Security)29 colleges
Computer Science and Engineering (Cyber Security)29 colleges	1	Muthoot Institute of Technology and Science, ErnakulamSelf-financing	13,753
	2	Amal Jyothi College of Engineering, KottayamSelf-financing	24,700
	3	M E S College of Engineering, KuttippuramSelf-financing	26,928
	4	St Josephs College of Engineering and Technology, PalaiSelf-financing	30,607
	5	College of Engineering, Kallooppara, ThiruvallaGovernment-controlled	31,828
Computer Science & Engineering (Data Science)21 colleges
Computer Science & Engineering (Data Science)21 colleges	1	Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, KothamangalamGovernment	4,624
	2	SCMS School of Engineering and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing	22,732
	3	College of Engineering, AdoorGovernment-controlled	23,671
	4	Christ College of Engineering, ThrissurSelf-financing	24,755
	5	Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing	25,420
Computer Science and Engineering (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning)21 colleges
Computer Science and Engineering (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning)21 colleges	1	S C T College of Engineering, ThiruvananthapuramGovernment-controlled	7,154
	2	College of Engineering, ChengannurGovernment-controlled	11,327
	3	T K M Institute of Technology, KollamSelf-financing	26,775
	4	M E A Engineering College, VengoorSelf-financing	26,907
	5	College of Engineering, AttingalGovernment-controlled	28,203
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning18 colleges
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning18 colleges	1	Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, KothamangalamGovernment	5,743
	2	Vidya Academy of Science and Technology, ThrissurSelf-financing	40,178
	3	Marian Engineering College, ThiruvananthapuramSelf-financing	42,326
	4	ACE College Of Engineering, ThiruvananthapuramSelf-financing	54,838
	5	Malabar College of Engineering and Technology, ThrissurSelf-financing	56,270
Computer Science and Engineering (Artificial Intelligence)18 colleges
Computer Science and Engineering (Artificial Intelligence)18 colleges	1	T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.Government	2,218
	2	Muthoot Institute of Technology and Science, ErnakulamSelf-financing	12,556
	3	Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology, ThiruvananthapuramSelf-financing	16,855
	4	SCMS School of Engineering and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing	19,683
	5	Amal Jyothi College of Engineering, KottayamSelf-financing	21,951
Electronics and Computer Engineering14 colleges
Electronics and Computer Engineering14 colleges	1	LBS Institute of Technology for Women, ThiruvananthapuramGovernment-controlled	22,576
	2	Saintgits College of Engineering, KottayamSelf-financing	29,753
	3	Malabar College of Engineering and Technology, ThrissurSelf-financing	35,142
	4	St Josephs College of Engineering and Technology, PalaiSelf-financing	37,177
	5	College of Engineering, Thalassery, KannurGovernment-controlled	38,162
Electrical and Computer Engineering13 colleges
Electrical and Computer Engineering13 colleges	1	College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.Government	1,408
	2	T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.Government	3,309
	3	Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology, ThiruvananthapuramSelf-financing	29,137
	4	Toc H Institute of Science and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing	40,915
	5	College of Engineering Kidangoor, KOTTAYAMGovernment-controlled	52,063
Information Technology13 colleges
Information Technology13 colleges	1	Government Engineering College Barton Hill, ThiruvananthapuramGovernment	7,023
	2	Government Engineering College, PalakkadGovernment	9,645
	3	Government Engineering College, IdukkiGovernment	10,384
	4	Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, ErnakulamSelf-financing	12,595
	5	LBS Institute of Technology for Women, ThiruvananthapuramGovernment-controlled	24,553

Every branch offered by twelve or more colleges, with the five whose State Merit seats closed at the tightest rank. Ordered by how many colleges offer the branch.

Method

The one input

Every number on this page comes from the last rank table for the second phase allotment to engineering courses, KEAM 2026, published by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations on 20 July 2026. It contains 852 college-and-branch rows across 141 colleges and 52 branches.

Nothing else is used. No rankings, no survey, no placement figures, no hand-entered data.

Why a closing rank means something

KEAM allotment runs strictly in rank order. The candidate at rank 500 is allotted before the candidate at rank 501, always, and each takes the best option still open on their list. So the last rank admitted to a seat is the exact point at which demand for that seat ran out.

If a course closes at 1,500, every one of the 1,500 students ahead could have taken it and enough of them did. If it closes at 55,000, the first 54,999 looked at it and chose something else. That is a measurement, not an opinion.

State Merit only

We use the SM column. State Merit is the open-merit category every candidate competes in regardless of community, which makes it the only column comparable across all 141 colleges. Reserved-category closing ranks are set by separate quotas of different sizes, so comparing a college’s SC rank against another’s EZ rank measures the quota, not the college. For your own category, use the predictor.

How demand is calculated

Three steps.

1. Take the median across the college’s branches. A college with eight branches has eight State Merit closing ranks. Its figure is the middle one. The median rather than the best, because a college with one fashionable course and seven empty ones is not a strong college, and the minimum would flatter it. The median rather than the mean, because one branch closing at 64,000 would drag an average that a median shrugs off.

2. Convert to a 0 to 100 score on a log scale. For a college with median rank m, where best and worst are the tightest and loosest medians in the eligible field:

score = 100 × ( ln(worst) − ln(m) ) / ( ln(worst) − ln(best) )

The log matters. On a linear scale, the gap between closing at 1,500 and 5,000 would count for the same as the gap between 55,000 and 58,500. The first is the difference between the top college in the state and the fifth; the second is two colleges nobody is choosing between. Rank scales are multiplicative, so the score is too.

3. Rank by the median. The score describes how far apart colleges are. The ordering itself is just the median closing rank, smallest first.

Who is included

Colleges need 3 or more branches with a State Merit closing rank. Below that the median rests on one or two courses and says more about the course than the college, and Kerala’s single-branch specialist institutes in dairy technology and ocean engineering would top the table on one number. This excludes 13 of 141 colleges, leaving 128.

Branches need 12 or more colleges offering them before they get a row, so that a top five is a real selection rather than most of the field. Below that the tail is one-off courses offered by a single college. 14 branches qualify; the rest are in the predictor.

The branch table applies no minimum to colleges, since each row there is a single directly comparable course.

What this cannot tell you

These are second phase ranks, and the second phase was not the last one. CEE published a third phase allotment for engineering on 6 August 2026, after the table used here. Closing ranks loosen with each phase as allotted candidates withdraw or upgrade, so the final 2026 ranks are softer than the numbers on this page, and softer by more in the lower half of the table than at the top. Read these as the standings partway through, not the final result.

It is also one year. Closing ranks shift year to year with candidate and seat numbers. The top of the table is stable; the middle moves.

Demand is partly fees. Government seats cost a fraction of self-financing ones, so a cheap college reads as a desirable one. It is the biggest confound in the whole exercise.

It is not a measure of teaching. Closing rank tells you what students collectively believed about a college, not what happens to them after they enrol. Those are correlated. They are not the same.

No placement data. The number students most want is the one nobody publishes comparably. Self-reported placement percentages cannot be checked across colleges, so they are absent rather than laundered into a score.

Working it out for your own rank

A ranking is a starting point, not an option list. What decides your year is which of these your rank can actually reach, and what the seat costs.

KEAM college predictor: your rank and category against all 852 closing ranks in the table, including every reserved category.
KEAM fee calculator: the four-year cost of a seat, with every figure traced to the order that set it.

Source

Last rank table, KEAM 2026 second phase allotment, published by the Office of the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, Thiruvananthapuram. 852 college-and-branch rows across 141 colleges and 52 branches.