Mumbai: In a move that has surprised and shocked several first-year university aspirants, the University of Mumbai late on Monday announced the schedule for admissions to all its affiliated colleges. This could be the first time that the university has decided to start admissions to undergraduate degree courses before the announcement of class 12 results across school education boards.
Due to delay in conducting exams for the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council of Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), both boards are yet to release results for class 12 whereas the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) declared class 12 (HSC) results last week.
While initially, the varsity had decided to wait for all results to be announced before announcing the admission schedule, it has now decided to complete the admission form filling process by June 25 and announce the first merit list on June 29.
“All colleges should strictly follow the admission procedure. All colleges, including autonomous institutes, will have to admit students as per the sanctioned intake only. Colleges may get permission from university for additional seats in excess of intake to admit CBSE and ICSE board students as per college merit cut-off in due course,” states the circular released by the university on Monday.
This means that all HSC students will first get admitted to colleges as per their scores and preferences, while CBSE and ISC students will have to approach colleges individually after their results are announced. What’s worse is that admissions under the minority quota will also end on June 25, as per the admissions schedule.
Until 2021, HSC would be the last of the board results to be announced, making way for the admissions process to UG courses to commence immediately. This year, however, HSC has been released already while students from other boards are still waiting for results.
“Some of the top colleges with the best UG unaided courses are minority institutes, and some of us (students) aim for seats in this quota because cutoffs in the general category are very high. What happens to quota seats once the admission deadline is over? By law the university cannot increase quota seat intake,” said Harshita Poojari, an ISC student.
While the MU circular mentions that colleges might be allowed to increase their intake capacity, it does not explain the process. “As of now, delaying admissions is not an option because it ends up leaving less academic time for students. Colleges just need to ensure that they maintain the general merit list cut-off and only those students who have scored above that cut-off score be allowed to apply for admission at their institute,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
While MU officials feel this move will be easy to implement, college heads feel this will not only add to confusion for students but lead to bigger chaos for colleges as well. “Such moves will invite flak and petitions in court, which will eventually end up delaying the admissions process further. Someone at the university needs to take the onus of such decisions, which will affect the lives of thousands of students,” said Ashok Wadia, principal of Jai Hind College, Churchgate.
Despite repeated attempts to reach out to the director Board of Examination and Evaluation (BoEE), pro-vice chancellor and vice-chancellor of the university, no one responded to queries raised by the paper.
While spokespersons for both the CBSE and CISCE were unavailable for comments, school heads feel this move will prove costly to many bright and deserving students from other school education boards.
“The system is to be blamed for the delay in results, not the students or their aspirations. This is not an inclusive decision by the university, especially during a pandemic year,” said Francis Joseph, Director, School Leaders Network.
