COEP Tech Pune Admission Through GATE: M.Tech CAP Rounds and PhD

COEP Technological University, formerly the College of Engineering Pune, describes itself as a unitary public university of the Government of Maharashtra. Its 2026-27 admission notice gives the address as Wellesley Road, Shivajinagar, Pune 411005. The Pune city page covers the GATE exam centres in the city.

Because it is a university in its own right, COEP Tech runs M.Tech admission itself. You register on its M.Tech admission portal, COEP Tech's own e-scrutiny centre verifies your documents online, and the university publishes the merit lists, seat matrices, allotments and cut-offs on its post-graduate admission page. Its rounds are still called CAP rounds and follow rules much like the state's, but they are separate from the CET Cell's process: COEP Tech does not appear in the CET Cell's 2026 M.E./M.Tech cut-off lists.

Four regular M.Tech programmes come under Computer Science and Engineering. The 2026-27 intake list and eligibility matrix give:

Programme	Intake (non-sponsored + sponsored)	GATE papers accepted
Data Sciences	60 (45 + 15)	DA, CS, EC, EE, IN
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning	18 (14 + 4)	DA, CS, EC, EE, IN
Computer Engineering	30 (23 + 7)	DA, CS
Computer Science and Information Security	30 (23 + 7)	DA, CS

The bachelor's degrees accepted are broad for all four: computer, IT, electronics, electrical, mechanical, civil and many newer AI, data, cyber security and cloud branches appear in the matrix. A separate M.Tech in Data Sciences with 30 seats is reserved for working professionals with at least two years of experience after graduation.

Other departments run programmes with an AI angle, such as AI in Signal Processing in Electronics and Telecommunication and AI in Healthcare in Instrumentation and Control; check the matrix for the papers they take. The notice adds that a programme with fewer than ten admitted candidates will not be offered that year, with the fee refunded.

The 2026-27 notice and the information brochure set these conditions for Maharashtra and All India candidates:

• A bachelor's degree in the relevant engineering or technology field with at least 50% marks (45% for backward class, EWS and PwD candidates belonging to Maharashtra).
• A qualified GATE score valid for the current academic year, or non-qualified GATE marks of the current year. Qualified candidates have preference over non-qualified ones.
• Sponsored candidates need two years of full-time work experience in the relevant field.

For a student from the south the important line is in the brochure's seat rules: it sets no separate All India quota for M.Tech. Maharashtra and All India candidates go into one common merit list built on GATE score, and the brochure treats All India candidates' seats as general category, without reservation. In the cut-off lists, that means the open column is your benchmark.

The important dates for 2026-27:

Step	Date
Online registration and document upload	15 March to 30 May 2026
Provisional merit list	5 June 2026
Final merit list and seat matrix	10 June 2026
CAP Round I option form	11 to 14 June 2026
CAP Round I allotment	15 June 2026
Reporting for Round I, in person with a demand draft	16 to 18 June 2026
CAP Round III, in-person reporting	30 June 2026

Options are taken online for Rounds I, II and III, and an allotted seat must be confirmed by reporting at COEP Tech with original documents and the fee as a demand draft payable at Pune. A seat acceptance fee of Rs 1,000 is paid online at first reporting. Round IV is where non-GATE, non-sponsored candidates come in.

An institute-level round on 21 August 2026 followed in the Main Auditorium. Fresh registrations with a non-zero 2026 GATE score or a valid qualified 2024, 2025 or 2026 score were allowed, and seats went first by GATE score or marks, then to sponsored candidates, then by entrance test marks. Queries go to pgadmission@coeptech.ac.in.

COEP Tech's cut-off page for AY 2026-27 carries M.Tech cut-off lists for CAP Round I and Round II. Each cell is printed as a state merit number with a figure in brackets; the footnote says the figure is the GATE/CEED score or marks for non-sponsored candidates. The open column read:

Programme (as printed)	CAP Round I (GOPENS)	CAP Round II (OPEN)
Data Sciences	446	415
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning	504	446
Computer Engineering	533	510
Computer Science and Information Security	472	439

The full set by category is in the cut-off table on this page. Some reserved and PwD columns show small figures such as 16 or 20.91 instead of a score; those sit far down the merit order, and this page leaves them out because the list does not say whether each is a score or marks. No Round III or IV M.Tech list was posted on that page.

Candidates who neither took GATE nor have work experience and a sponsorship letter apply in the "Non-GATE_Non-Sponsored" category. They are eligible only in CAP Round IV, must take COEP Tech's University Common Entrance Test (UCET), and are allotted by UCET marks. In August 2026 a further UCET was held on campus on 20 August for new registrants before the institute-level round, where UCET candidates were considered only after the GATE merit list was exhausted.

Sponsored seats, roughly a quarter of each computing intake, are for candidates with two years of work experience; the cut-off lists rank them by graduation marks. If sponsored seats remain vacant in Round III, the brochure lets them go to GATE candidates by merit. The 2026 Round II cut-off list already shows rows marked "Sponsored to Non-Sponsored" for all four computing programmes.

PhD admission has its own page and information brochure, with applications on a separate PhD portal. Selection runs through COEP Tech's Research Program Eligibility Test (RPET), a 100-mark multiple-choice test, followed by an interview. You need 50% in RPET to be called. Candidates with a valid qualified GATE, NET or SET score are exempt from RPET and can be called straight to the interview, which the brochure calls the sole criterion for selection.

For engineering, you need a master's degree in engineering or technology with at least 55% marks. The Computer Science and Engineering department lists research areas including AI and image processing, machine learning, deep learning, big data analytics, NLP, cloud computing, blockchain and information security.

Applications for the current cycle opened on 3 August 2026, and the important dates set the close at 10 December 2026, RPET on campus on 17 December, interviews on 21 December and the selection list on 23 December 2026. Queries go to phdadmission@coeptech.ac.in.

Since the merit list is built on GATE score, your score is what moves you up. Work through the GATE DA or GATE CSE pages and their preparation guides for DA and CSE, then the previous year papers. Keep an eye on the GATE 2027 page for dates, and on COEP Tech's post-graduate admission page from March, when its 2026 registration opened.