Education Marketing Calendar for Kerala's 2027 Admissions

A disclosure: we run admission campaigns for Kerala schools, colleges and consultancies as part of our education marketing work, so the cost figures below come from our own clients' accounts. The dates come from official notifications, each linked, read on 4 October 2026. Where a 2027 date isn't published yet, we say so and give 2026's as the pattern.

The scale is why timing matters. Kerala's schools teach 34,11,198 students from lower primary to high school in 2026-27, by the General Education Department's academic calendar (opens in a new tab), and 4,14,290 students sat the SSLC in March 2026, per the state's results release of 15 May 2026 (opens in a new tab). Most of their families make the year's biggest education decision within a few weeks of the results, and every school, college, coaching centre and consultancy in the state is trying to reach them in the same weeks.

And dates move. In 2026, NTA cancelled the NEET UG exam held on 3 May and re-held it on 21 June, so results came on 16 July and Kerala's medical allotments ran from late August into October. A calendar is a plan, not a promise: check every date against the official notice before you build a campaign around it.

When do Kerala families search for admissions?#

Later than institutions start planning, and in a narrow window. Our read of Google Trends for Kerala over five years (average weekly index by month, read on 4 October 2026) shows the shape:

Search in Kerala	Peak months	Quietest month
college admission	June, then May and July	December (June is about nine times higher)
degree admission	June, July, May	December
plus one admission	May, then June and July	January to April, close to nil
school admission	May, then March	August
keam (last 12 months)	January (applications), April (the test), May to July (results and allotment)	October
neet (last 12 months)	Builds from February to a July peak	October
study abroad	Flat all year, a little higher in May and June	none

Index values are relative within each search, not counts.

Read the table as three waves. The school wave is small and early: parents of younger children search from March, and the state syllabus's own admissions follow the SSLC results in May. The results wave is the big one: "college admission" and "degree admission" searches climb in May, peak in June and fade by August, which matches the university registration and allotment dates below. The entrance wave starts earliest of all, with KEAM applications in January, and runs to the allotments in July. Study abroad searches, by contrast, barely move, because each country's intake has its own clock.

Institutions look for help at the same moment as the families. Across India, searches for "admission marketing" peaked in May and June and bottomed out between October and December in each of 2022, 2023 and 2024. By the time most institutions start looking for marketing help, the families are already deciding, and the ads already cost more.

What are the key dates for the 2027 season?#

As of 4 October 2026, almost none of the 2027 dates are official yet. Kerala's board timetables usually appear between October and November (the 2026 notice was listed on 29 October 2025), KEAM's notification came on 5 January in 2026, and NTA's published calendar runs only to March 2027. So the table gives the 2027 date where one exists and 2026's as the pattern where it doesn't.

Event	2027 (official, as of 4 Oct 2026)	2026 (what happened)	Source
Kerala SSLC exams	Not published; the state's academic calendar has the written exams starting in March 2027	5 to 30 March	Kerala PRD (opens in a new tab); academic calendar (opens in a new tab)
Kerala Plus Two (HSE) exams	Not published; March 2027	6 to 28 March (practicals from 22 January)	DHSE notification (opens in a new tab)
SSLC and Plus Two results	May 2027, per the academic calendar	SSLC 15 May; Plus Two 26 May	Kerala PRD (opens in a new tab); academic calendar (opens in a new tab)
Plus One single-window admission	Not published	Applications 25 May to 3 June; first allotment 15 June; classes from 2 July	HSCAP prospectus 2026 (opens in a new tab)
University UG registration	Not published	Calicut 2 to 12 June (first allotment 22 June); Kerala 29 May to 14 June (first allotment 17 June); classes from 1 July	University of Calicut (opens in a new tab), University of Kerala (opens in a new tab)
KEAM applications and test	Not published	Applications 5 January to 6 February; engineering test 17 to 22 April; rank list 27 June	CEE Kerala (opens in a new tab)
NEET UG	Not published; the Union Education Minister has said it moves to computer-based testing from 2027	3 May exam cancelled; re-held 21 June; result 16 July	NTA (opens in a new tab)
JEE Main, session 1	22 to 24 and 28 to 30 January 2027 (tentative)	21 to 28 January	NTA calendar of 16 September 2026 (opens in a new tab)
CUET UG	Not published	Applications 3 to 30 January; tests 11 May to 7 June; result 23 June	NTA (opens in a new tab)
CBSE Class 10 and 12	Date sheet not published	Exams from 17 February; Class 12 result 13 May	CBSE (opens in a new tab)
UK undergraduate (UCAS)	15 October 2026 for Oxford, Cambridge and most medicine; 13 January 2027 for most courses	n/a	UCAS (opens in a new tab)
Germany	Deadlines are often 15 January (summer semester) and 15 July (winter semester)	n/a	uni-assist (opens in a new tab)
Australia	Semester 1 starts in February or March, semester 2 in July; mid-year applications usually open around April	n/a	Study Australia (opens in a new tab)

What should you run in each month?#

Put the dates and the searches together and the year falls into a clear pattern. The middle column uses 2026's dates where 2027's aren't out.

Month	What happens	What to run
October 2026	Schools prepare admissions for June 2027; UCAS deadline for Oxford, Cambridge and medicine (15 October); Kerala's board exam notice usually appears	Audit last season's enquiries; plan the budget by month; shoot the creative bank; school open-day campaigns
November 2026	School admissions build; JEE Main registration (it opened on 31 October in 2025)	Parent campaigns for schools; video for colleges to build cheap audiences; course and fee pages for 2027
December 2026	Second-term exams; Christmas holidays; school admissions peak through March	Campus visits and open days in the holidays; entrance awareness for Plus Two students
January 2027	KEAM and CUET applications (both opened in January in 2026); JEE Main session 1 (22 to 30 January, tentative); UCAS deadline (13 January); Kerala's exam timetables are finalised	Entrance-led campaigns; start college lead ads while attention is cheap; grow retargeting pools
February 2027	Model exams; CBSE exams begin (17 February in 2026); NEET applications (8 February to 11 March in 2026)	The cheapest launch month per enquiry in Clarix's 2026 account: launch the main lead ads, with a parents' version
March 2027	SSLC and Plus Two exams	Keep parent campaigns on; get results-day creative, WhatsApp templates and CRM stages approved and ready
April 2027	KEAM test (17 to 22 April in 2026); JEE Main session 2 (2 to 8 April in 2026); exams over	Webinars and guides on what to do after Plus Two; costs are rising, so the audiences built earlier matter now
May 2027	SSLC and Plus Two results (15 and 26 May in 2026); CUET tests (from 11 May in 2026); Plus One applications (from 25 May in 2026); university registration begins	Results-day campaigns; full budget on courses that are still filling; extra counsellor hours, including Gulf time
June 2027	Plus One and university first allotments (15 to 24 June in 2026); CUET result (23 June); KEAM rank list (27 June); schools reopen	University registration help on WhatsApp and on campus; allotment reminders; repeat-batch coaching ads after results
July 2027	Classes begin; engineering allotments (from 8 July in 2026); Germany's winter-semester deadline (often 15 July); Australia's semester 2 starts	Last-seat and spot-admission campaigns; a short, sharp sprint for new institutions with a strong offer
August 2027	Supplementary and spot admissions; medical allotments (late August in 2026, after the NEET re-test); Onam	Close the season: record why enquiries were lost, collect consented testimonials, plan next year
September 2027	Study abroad September intakes begin; medical and allied rounds can run into October	School campaigns for the following June begin again; refresh pages for the next season

Three kinds of day deserve a plan of their own. Results days (15 May for the SSLC and 26 May for Plus Two in 2026) need an ad set approved in advance, a WhatsApp template already cleared and counsellors on extra hours, because families compare options within hours. Allotment days (15 June for Plus One, 17 and 22 June for the Kerala and Calicut universities' first allotments in 2026) are when students discover what they got and what they didn't, so a reminder that your college still has seats, or a help desk for the next round, lands at exactly the right time. And closing days (3 June for Plus One applications, 12 June for Calicut's registration, 14 June for Kerala's in 2026) are when a reminder to finish registering, with the real date, does more than any new ad.

The 90 days before each peak are where the work happens; our 90-day admission marketing plan sets out the forms, CRM stages and follow-up rules for that stretch.

Why do the early months matter so much?#

Because in our own data, enquiries cost more from February to May. In one admission season for Clarix Education, a Kerala college-guidance brand we market, Meta counted 1,466 lead-form enquiries between November 2025 and June 2026, at ₹262 each on the ads that brought them in. Grouped by the month each ad was launched (read from the ad's name, so approximate), on the same basis:

Ads launched in	Enquiries	Cost per enquiry
February 2026	140	₹120
March 2026	464	₹197
April 2026	370	₹252
May 2026	401	₹374
June 2026	79	₹322

Part of the gap is creative, since different ads ran in different months, and June's launches cost less than May's. The cost of reach moved too: on the lead ads, a thousand impressions cost ₹85 for February launches, ₹163 for March, ₹209 for April and ₹185 for May. February's lead-form ads, at ₹120 an enquiry (₹132 counting the February lead-form ads that brought none), sit below both published ranges for education leads on Meta in our cost per lead guide (₹150 to ₹400 and ₹200 to ₹600, both 2025).

A late start can still work, but only with a sharp offer. VONA School of Design, a new design school in Kozhikode, ran a 45-day Meta sprint with us from mid-July to the end of August 2026, after the main rush. It led with GCC placements for students who enrol, on screen in the first seven seconds, and every enquiry went into Xale (opens in a new tab), the CRM built by the team behind Marketlube. Our team reports 50+ admissions on ₹1.5 lakh of ad spend. The offer did the work the calendar couldn't.

How should the budget move across the year?#

Spend follows the families, but it should start before them. A planning split for a college or a coaching centre with one main intake, as a starting point rather than a benchmark:

Months	Share of the season's media budget	What it buys
October to January	15 to 20%	Video to build audiences, school campaigns, entrance awareness, testing forms and offers
February to April	35 to 40%	The main lead ads while attention is cheap, parents' versions, webinars
May to July	35 to 40%	Results-day and allotment campaigns, search on course and place, retargeting the audiences built earlier
August and September	About 5%	Last seats, spot admissions and keeping the audience warm for next year

Two rules sit on top of the split. Hold back about a tenth of the May to July money for whichever course is filling slowest in the last three weeks. And move money between months by cost per admission, not by cost per enquiry: a cheap enquiry in February is only cheap if it becomes a student, which is why every enquiry should reach the CRM tagged with the campaign and month it came from. Xale attaches the campaign and form to each Meta lead as it arrives and turns daily ad spend into cost per lead, as xale.in describes it (opens in a new tab). Our 90-day plan has the CRM stages that make that measurable.

What changed in 2026 that affects the 2027 plan?#

Four changes are worth building into next year's calendar.

NEET moved once, and may move again. The 2026 re-test pushed medical results to 16 July and Kerala's medical allotments into late August, September and October. The Union Education Minister has said NEET will be computer-based from 2027, as All India Radio reported on 15 May 2026 (opens in a new tab). Keep medical and allied campaigns flexible until NTA publishes the 2027 notice.
CBSE now has two board exams for Class 10. In 2026 the main exam ran from 17 February to 11 March and a second exam from 15 to 21 May, with its results on 18 July, per CBSE's press release of 18 July 2026 (opens in a new tab). Some families will hold Plus One decisions until the second result.
Gulf centres can be disrupted. In March 2026, the SSLC paper of 5 March and the Plus Two papers of 5 to 7 March at Kerala's Gulf centres were deferred, as Onmanorama reported on 2 March (opens in a new tab). Parents in the Gulf need dates confirmed, not assumed, and campaigns aimed at them should say where to check.
The rules on data and claims tighten mid-season. India's data protection duties apply in full from 13 May 2027, right in the results month: from then, a minor's data needs verifiable parental consent and targeted advertising directed at children is barred. Admission forms and audiences need to be ready before May, not rebuilt during it.

For consultancies, one more date matters: the UK's Graduate visa falls from two years to 18 months for applications made from 1 January 2027, so any 2027 ad still promising two years is out of date.

How does the calendar differ by type of institution?#

The months above are the state's rhythm; each kind of institution sits on a different part of it.

Institution	When families decide	When to start	The job in the peak
CBSE and international schools	December to March, for a June start	September or October	Open days and campus visits for parents, with Gulf-based parents reached in their evenings
State-syllabus and aided schools, Plus One	After the SSLC results, through the single-window allotment	March	Help families fill the options correctly; unaided schools market directly
Arts and science colleges	After the Plus Two results, during university registration	January or February	Get on the student's option list and see registration through
Engineering, medical and allied health	Around KEAM and NEET, then the allotment rounds	December	Entrance awareness first, management-quota seats after the rank lists
Entrance coaching	After Class 10 results for two-year batches; after NEET and KEAM results for repeaters	January, and again in March	Batch dates, fees and results claims that meet the coaching guidelines
Skill and professional courses	May to July, after results	February or March	Career outcomes, stated honestly, and flexible batches
Study abroad consultancies	Six to nine months before each intake	Rolling	Destination and course content; see our consultancy marketing strategy
Online academies	All year, with peaks around exams and new batches	Always on	Free teaching that builds an audience before each batch opens

Two of our clients show how the school side keeps moving after the main season. DiYES International School, a Cambridge school in Trivandrum, was still filling its last 2026-27 seats in September 2026, with a new wave of ads that month, including Malayalam versions, and its search ads point to the admissions page we built for it. And TasHeel Moral Academy, an online academy with one-to-one, group and weekend batches, builds its audience all year: its Instagram grew on Malayalam reels from about 300 followers to 39,064 on 29 September 2026 (the start as our team reports it, the end a public count). For consultancies, Xale's guide to planning the January, May and September intakes on one calendar (opens in a new tab) covers the operations side.

What should be ready before each peak?#

The weeks before a peak are for switching on, not building. Have these ready a month ahead:

Pages: a page for every course or class, with eligibility, fees or a fee range, dates and the admission route, in Malayalam and English. Our SEO guide for colleges and schools covers the page grid.
The CRM: stages, owners and time limits set, with leads arriving tagged with the campaign they came from.
WhatsApp templates approved before the rush, so a results-day message is not stuck in review.
A creative bank: one question per video, filmed in one shoot, ready to rotate as costs rise.
Consent: written consent for every student testimonial, taken after the result for coaching centres. From 13 May 2027, India's data protection rules also require verifiable parental consent before you process a minor's data, and bar targeted advertising directed at children; our DPDP checklist covers forms and CRMs.
A results-day kit: the ads, the landing page change, the WhatsApp message and the counsellor rota for results day, written and approved weeks before it.
A reserve: about a tenth of the season's budget held back for whichever course or class fills slowest in the last three weeks.

Frequently asked questions#

When does admission season start in Kerala?#

There are three seasons, not one. Schools fill seats for June between December and March, with campaigns from October; entrance-led admissions start with applications in January (KEAM 2026 opened on 5 January); and Plus One and degree admissions open within days of the May results. Institutions that plan in October can be ready for all three.

When are the Kerala Plus Two results declared?#

In May. The 2026 Plus Two results were declared on 26 May at 3 pm, and the SSLC results on 15 May. The General Education Department's 2026-27 calendar puts the 2027 results in May 2027; the exact days are announced closer to the time.

When do Plus One admissions open in Kerala?#

After the SSLC results, through the single-window system. In 2026 the online applications ran from 25 May to 3 June, ten days after the results, with a trial allotment on 8 June, the first allotment on 15 June and classes from 2 July, according to the HSCAP prospectus for 2026. The 2027 schedule is published with the 2027 prospectus.

When should a college start advertising for 2027 admissions?#

Build awareness from January and launch the main lead ads by February. In one Kerala account we run, lead-form ads launched in February 2026 cost ₹120 per enquiry against ₹374 for those launched in May (Meta's count, on the ads that brought enquiries in), and a thousand impressions cost ₹85 for the February launches against ₹185 for May's.

Is it worth advertising after the results?#

Yes, if you have seats, a sharp offer and counsellors ready, but expect to pay more per enquiry and to move faster. Families decide within days of the results and allotments, so a late campaign needs its offer in the first seconds of every ad and a reply to every enquiry the same day.

Book the cheap months now#

The institutions that fill early don't spend the most; they start first, while attention is cheap and families are still choosing. If you want a 2027 calendar built around your courses, tell us about your institution, or see how it played out for our clients in our education marketing case studies. Consultancies can start with our education consultancy marketing strategy.