Maharashtra: Govt. received 112 proposals for new colleges from MU, 183 from state

Mumbai: The state government had identified 434 locations for 183 proposals received from different universities to start new colleges this year in the state.

After getting the green signal from the government, these colleges will begin from the upcoming academic session 2023-24.

As per the TOI report, 112 proposed locations for new colleges have been received from the Mumbai University itself, 28 proposals from college managements were sent to the state's higher and technical education department.

A majority of these 28 proposals are for law colleges. Savitribai Phule Pune University sent 31 proposals for 33 locations.

The government had set a deadline of March 31 for universities to submit the proposals from college managements after scrutinising these at their level. These proposals will now be vetted by the department and a final list of approved colleges will be released soon.

For the 112 locations identified in Mumbai University's perspective plan, 54 college managements showed interest. However, 26 of these proposals were rejected at the university level and only 28 were sent to the department after scrutiny.

The state is likely to scrutinise these further and release the final list of approved colleges soon, said an official.

Of the 28 proposals from Mumbai University, 16 are for law colleges and the remaining 12 are for arts, science and commerce colleges, said the official.

For the past few years, the number of proposals coming from college managements has been consistently dropping.

TOI reported, for 2022-23, the state had identified 1,338 locations for new colleges. However, less than one-fourth eventually get the state's nod, said a university official. Newer colleges are also adding burden on the universities. Mumbai University, for instance, currently has 860 affiliated colleges.