MUMBAI: This year’s admission season continues to be riddled with confusion. While some city colleges will complete three rounds of admissions by the weekend and are likely to start their academic session in the coming week, some autonomous ones plan to wait for CBSE results or are undecided about it.
After the second round, which closed on Wednesday, some colleges see fewer seats left in some sought-after courses. Meanwhile, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has written to all universities requesting them to fix the last date of admissions after the CBSE Class 12 results are out.
While colleges affiliated to Mumbai University will release their third list on Thursday, KC and HR Colleges, part of the HSNC University, released their third merit list on Wednesday. The colleges, which have set aside 30-45% seats for CBSE and ISC students, have decided to wait for their results before starting the academic session.
Their cut-offs have further dropped by 1-2% in the third list for HSC students released on Wednesday. The cut-offs at both colleges, though, remained above 90% for sought-after self-financed courses (SFCs) such as BMS (commerce), BAF and BFM, even for the HSC students. Hemlata Bagla, vice-chancellor, HSNC, said they will wait for CBSE students to start classes and plan the induction programme in July last week.
N M and Mithibai colleges, which conducted entrance tests for their SFCs, plan to release their first merit list on July 16 based on test scores. Since they are not giving weightage to boards, they hope to start the academic session around August 1. For admission to traditional BA, BCom and BSc courses, they plan to wait for CBSE results.
Both St Xavier’s and Jai Hind colleges have held entrance tests for SFCs, but since they are also giving weightage to board scores, they will have to wait for CBSE and ISC results. While St Xavier’s has partially filled the seats in traditional courses, Jai Hind plans to start all admissions after CBSE results. Podar and Ruia colleges, which have followed university schedule, are undecided on starting lectures.
Neha Jagtiani, principal, RD National College, said they have 3-6% seats left in courses such as BMS, BAF and BMM. “We plan to start classes from Monday after the third list. For CBSE and ISC students, we hope to get 20% additional seats later. We do not wish to delay the academic term,” she said.
A principal said the chaos is due to lack of a uniform schedule. “The university has unnecessarily rushed admissions. Now with a section of colleges following their own schedule, there will be a lot of mobility of students from one college to another once results are declared. If colleges start early, CBSE and ISC students will miss out on lectures,” he said.
Meanwhile, the UGC letter addressed to vice-chancellors stated some universities have started registrations for undergraduate courses. “In this scenario, students from CBSE will be deprived of admission if the last date is fixed by the universities...,” it said. An MU official said they are still to deliberate on the UGC letter.
