Officials say the delay in approving the institutes, and in restarting the centralised application access process for admissions has led to seats going vacant
Maharashtra approved 46 colleges offering traditional courses across the state, of these 18 are affiliated to the University of Mumbai
Officials at new colleges, which have been approved recently to cater to increased demand for higher education, are worried that most of the seats are going vacant due to the delay in restarting the centralised application access process for admissions. They also feel the delay in approvals for these colleges have also led to the seats going vacant.
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Maharashtra approved 46 colleges offering traditional courses across the state, of these 18 are affiliated to the Mumbai University. Admissions to all degree colleges affiliated to Mumbai University have to be done through online process. Hence Mumbai University has reopened the process of application.But these colleges fear going vacant in the first year as it is already September when applications have been invited.
The delays
“The approval was finalised in the month of August when other degree colleges had almost completed their admission process. Even lectures had begun in colleges by August. What’s the point of approving the college at this juncture when students are not able to take advantage of available seats? Now anyways most of the admissions are done. Even examinations schedules are out. Many courses have semester examination scheduled in October. We cannot expect many people to turn up to take admission in September,” said a management representative from one such college.
Principal of another college said, “To get the required approval, colleges are expected to be prepared with all the arrangements from infrastructure to manpower. With vacancies, it will be difficult for managements to sustain for the year. The delay in approvals has impacted colleges to a great extent. On the other hand, government managed to claim credit of bringing new colleges in the market right at the beginning of the academic year.”
“First of all the government should ensure if existing colleges are run properly before bringing in new colleges. There would obviously be marginal number of people left without admission after August as colleges begin lectures by then for degree courses,” said Pradeep Sawant, former senate member from Mumbai University.
Another former senate member, Santosh Gangurde, said, “Std 12th result was declared in the month of May. How can the government wait till August to approve new colleges if they were planning to cater to the increased demand? The flipside is that colleges cannot also cry about vacancies in the first year as they are bound to happen, since the institutes are new. Even if the colleges were approved in time, there would not be many takers considering they are new colleges.”
Student speak
Sachin Pawar, president of Law Students Council, said, “Now only candidates applying for law are still waiting for admissions due to the chaos. That is also because there is going to be a centralised admission process that is delayed. But for other traditional courses such as Arts, Commerce, Science etc, lectures have begun long ago and students are now approaching their first semester examination.”
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