Mumbai: With over two lakh available seats, students are now waiting for the second merit list for First Year Junior College (FYJC) admissions to be declared on Monday.
Out of 1.31 lakh students who were allotted seats in the first merit round, over 90,000 students have confirmed admissions, while the remaining will wait for the second round.
This year, the state education department increased seats by adding new colleges. This move was initiated to provide sufficient number of seats to students who scored low marks in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) board exams.
Moreover, the number of seats were increased after the quota reservation was introduced this year, claimed officials of the education department. But this addition of seats will leave many colleges with empty seats, claim college authorities.
The principal of a Vile Parle college said, "We have received just 60 applications for the available 120 seats. Our classrooms are going to be half empty for this academic year."
The state also informed all colleges to increase eight per cent seats for Commerce and Arts streams and five per cent for the Science stream. In addition, over 11,600 students have been thrown out of the online admission process.
These students were allotted admissions in the first college preference of the first merit round, but they failed to secure admissions. A senior officer of the department managing FYJC admission, said, "It is mandatory to secure admissions if students are allotted seats in first college preference.
Students are aware of this rule. If students not secure admissions in those colleges, they will be thrown out of the online admission process and will not be able to apply in the next merit round."
Students claim they did not secure admissions because the fees were high. Kartiki Gudekar, a student, said, "When I checked online the fee was low, but then when I went to the college to secure admission, the college told me a higher fee amount. So I did not confirm my admission as I could not afford the high amount."
These students will now have to wait for the special admission rounds which will be conducted after the end of three general merit rounds. The second merit list will be declared on July 22 at 6pm.
