BSC courses see steep drop in cut-offs

Principals cite increased demand for selffinanced courses, longer attendance hours and more seats

MUMBAI: The second merit list for admissions to degree colleges affiliated to University of Mumbai (MU) was displayed on Saturday. The cut-offs for most degree courses at eminent colleges across the city have experienced a uniform dip of around 1 2%.

The trend was seen for Commerce courses such as Bcom, Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS), Bcom Accounting and Finance (BAF), Bcom Banking and Insurance, and Bcom Financial Markets (BFM) as well for Bachelor of Mass Media (BMM), Arts. The Bachelor of Management (BMS) course for Arts students saw a sharper drop in cut-offs.

However, the steepest drop in cut-offs in the second merit list was seen in the Science stream.

Jai Hind College witnessed a 17% decrease in its Bachelor of Science (BSC) cut-off – one of the highest in the city. On the other hand, the cut-off for the BSC in Information Technology (BSC IT) course at KC College, another

Churchgate-based institute, experienced a 6.6% dip.

Hemlata Bagla, principal, KC College said, “Such decreasing trends in BSC courses are quite common due to the relatively large number of seats which have to be filled.”

However, according to Usha Mukundan, principal of Jhunjhunwala College, Ghatkopar, the drop in the cut-off is because students are switching from BSC to professional courses.

“BSC applicants include a variety of students. Students have plenty of opportunities with various self-financed courses, for instance BSC in Computer Science. Hence, we expect a 40% shift in the seats towards courses that are suited to formal employment.” Mukundan added that some students may switch from BSC courses due to longer hours of classes, as that reduces scope for part-time employment. For Commerce and Arts courses, students have fewer hours of classes.

The second list to be put up on June 22 but the state wanted to challenge HC’S verdict exempting minority institutes from reserving seats for socially weaker students. The state’s special leave petition was rejected by the Supreme Court on Friday, following which the second list was put up.