Colleges in a fix as no seats left

After the declaration of two merit lists for admissions to Undergraduate (UG) programmes under the University of Mumbai (MU), degree colleges said that they may have to bring out a third merit list as there are no seats left. Degree colleges are trying different measures such as creating batches of students, starting an additional class, and conducting lectures in shifts to keep up with the increasing demand for seats for unaided courses.

Ashok Wadia, principal of Jai Hind College at Churchgate, said, “We have students from different states who have secured admission to various unaided UG courses. Since we are conducting online lectures, we can divide students in batches and professors can conduct lectures in shifts. We may have few vacant seats for certain courses in the third merit list.”

Degree colleges who have gained an autonomous status have an upper hand to accommodate more students by increasing their intake capacity. Rajendra Shinde, principal of St Xavier's College, Fort, said, “Since we are an autonomous college, we can start additional classes. We have received many applications for unaided courses such as Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) and Media and Communication (BMM).”

The higher percentage has led to higher cut-offs. Also, students are shifting towards unaided courses due to wider scope for employment, career options and multiple choices of subjects, said Professor Urvashi Kane, who manages unaided course admissions and campus interviews. Kane said, “There are campus placements for unaided courses wherein private companies conduct interviews and hire graduate students right after completion of their final year. This is attracting a lot of students to opt for unaided courses rather than pursuing the regular UG programmes.”

Kane added that there were generally 60 to 120 seats for unaided courses such as BMS, Media, Accounting and Finance, Information Technology (IT) and Banking. “These seats are bound to get filled up by the end of the second merit round with few seats left for the third merit list,” Kane said.