With the seats allotted to over 76,231 students in the second merit round of First Year Junior College (FYJC) admission, junior colleges have said that there will be a third merit list as there are vacant seats.

Junior colleges said the allotment reduced in the second round as less number of students was allotted seats through the centralised FYJC online admission process.

Junior colleges said 80 to 85 per cent seats are filled under Science, Commerce, Arts and HSVC (Vocational) streams for FYJC till now.

Anushree Lokur, principal of Ramnarain Ruia College, Matunga, said, "We had filled almost 80 per cent seats in the first merit round. But in the second merit round, comparatively less students were allotted seats through the FYJC centralised admission online process. We still have vacant seats and we can have a third merit round."

In the first merit list announced on August 30, around 1,17,520 students were allotted seats for FYJC admission out of a total of 2,12,152 applicants. In the second merit round declared on December 5, 76,231 students out of 1,58,810 applicants were allotted seats. The second merit round did not have 12 per cent seat reservation for the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) category or Maratha quota.

Pooja Ramchandani, in-charge principal of HR College, Churchgate, said, "Only 20 to 25 students were allotted seats in the second merit round through the centralised FYJC admission process. The cut-off percentage was high even in the second merit round but, we still have some vacant seats. We will have the third merit round in order to fill these seats."

Junior colleges were given time till 8 pm on Wednesday to upload status of admitted students on the FYJC admission website by the state school education department. The students who were allotted seats in the second merit round could secure admissions via online mode in respective junior colleges till 5 pm on December 9.

The state school education department said timetable for the regular third merit round will be announced soon.