Mumbai: High demand, yet no takers for new colleges?

Maharashtra approved 46 colleges offering traditional courses across the state of these 18 are affiliated to the University of MumbaiOfficials 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 vacantMaharashtra 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 applicationBut these colleges fear going vacant in the first year as it is already September when applications have been invitedThe delaysldquoThe 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 Whatrsquos 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 Septemberrdquo said a management representative from one such collegePrincipal of another college said ldquoTo 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 yearrdquoldquoFirst 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 coursesrdquo said Pradeep Sawant former senate member from Mumbai UniversityAnother former senate member Santosh Gangurde said ldquoStd 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 collegesrdquoStudent speakSachin Pawar president of Law Students Council said ldquoNow 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 examinationrdquo