Mumbai: Admissions to the undergraduate (UG) degree courses in colleges affiliated with the University of Mumbai (MU) have been underway for over a week now. However, several colleges in the city are witnessing a dip in applications as well as cut-offs, compared to previous years.
While this is being attributed to the low success rate in Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC-Class 12) results, the dip in the application is being blamed on the admission schedule released by MU, recently.
In an in-house quota, class 12 students get the first preference for admission to traditional courses like BA, BCom, and BSc in the same college.
As per the university rule, every student of the same college has the right to claim a seat in the traditional courses, and only the remaining seats after the in-house quota are allotted to students in the open category.
Every year, almost all the class 12 students block seats in first-year degree courses under the in-house quota and then apply for other self-financed courses in the open category. Seats in self-financed courses like bachelor of management studies (BMS), BCom in banking and insurance (BBI), BA in mass media and communication (BAMMC), as well as, BCom in accounting and finance (BAF) receive maximum applications and witness the toughest competition as high scorers from all school education boards opt for these seats, especially in the coveted colleges.
“Every year, HSC students are aware of the competition they could face in admissions to self-financed courses, especially against CBSE and ISC scores. This year, however, with admissions, first being conducted only for the HSC students, several aspirants are confidently waiting for open category admissions and not blocking seats in traditional courses, which is a risky move,” shared Marie Fernandes, principal of St Andrew’s College, Bandra. She also added that students are refusing to confirm admissions under the in-house quota, despite constant reminders from the college.
At RD-National College, admission to in-house, as well as, minority quota is currently taking place and the institute has witnessed a dip in applications to its otherwise popular course—FYBCom. “The dip in applications could also be attributed to students not scoring well in the HSC exam this year, especially, since the classes were conducted online while the exam was conducted in the offline mode. Everyone seems to be keen on applying for self-financed courses directly, but we are encouraging everyone to block a seat in FYBCom to avoid any confusion or chaos later,” said Neha Jagtiani, principal of the college.
On Monday, MU released its admission schedule for undergraduate courses for the 2022-23 academic year directing all MU-affiliated colleges, including autonomous institutes, to start the admissions process with only HSC students and then accommodate students from CBSE and CISCE boards “in due course”. Usually, admissions to degree college courses start only after the release of class 12 results across all school education boards. This year, however, CBSE class 12 and ISC results are expected in the month of July, and officials from MU stated that the university cannot wait that long to conduct admissions.
“As per the current admissions schedule, HSC students stand a good chance of getting seats in colleges and courses of their choice, because their biggest competition—high scorers from CBSE and CISCE boards will be missing this year. My fear, however, is if the university is forced to change its admission schedule after one week, these students will be left with no seat in traditional courses, and then, have to fight it out when admissions open to self-financed courses, which is a very risky move,” said the principal of a south Mumbai college.
As per the university admissions process, eligible students from all boards have to compulsorily fill up the pre-enrolment form, which requires basic details like name, age, name of the school, etc. Once the enrolment is done, students are supposed to list their preference of college and courses, where the admission link directs students to the respective college website, and students are then allowed to fill in details of their class 12 score. With no marks in hand, CBSE and CISCE students are not getting directed to the individual college websites. Parents and students are worried that without being allowed to register for admissions with individual colleges, they will have no idea of the number of students interested in admissions.
MU officials shared that they are not making any changes to the June 20 circular with the admission schedule. “Colleges can decide to reserve seats for non-state board students depending on how many seats have been allotted to students from CBSE and CISCE boards in the past few years. Halting the entire process for more than a month for students who constitute 4-5% of the total applications received by MU colleges will end up eating into the academic time for students, which is unnecessary,” said a senior official from MU, on condition of anonymity.
