FYJC admissions: 60% Thane colleges fill up after two rounds

First-year junior college (FYJC) classes will start soon in Thane district as most institutes have filled up their seats after just two rounds of sorting their merit lists.

Out of 415 colleges within Thane district, more than 245 (nearly 60%) have filled up almost all of their seats.

Most colleges managed to fill up 80% of their seats after the first merit list was out while some managed to do it by the time the second one was drawn up. Compared to the previous academic year, there has been a 20% increase in the number of students who have opted for college admissions within Thane district.

This year, 88,881 applications were received for a total 79, 351 FYJC seats.

Edward Mascarenhas, the vice-principal of St John the Baptist Junior College, said FYJC classes had started in his institute on Wednesday. “We have hardly 20 seats left after we drew up the second merit list for open categories. Within a day or two, the minority quota seats will fill up,” said Mascarenhas. “Usually most of the admissions happen after the second cut-off list is declared; this year, almost 70% of admissions were completed in the first round.”

Chandrashekhar Marathe, principal, Dnyansadhna College of Arts, Science and Commerce, said, “This year there are 718 students who have taken admissions after the first cut-off list within our institute; all these years, there used to be only around 500 students who would take admissions before the second list is declared.”

Chandibai Himatlal Mansukhani (CHM) College, a minority college, in Ulhasnagar has managed to fill 90% of its seats, including the ones reserved for Sindhis. Its principal Satram Verhani said this was the first time the college had less than 20 seats left for unaided students.

Colleges in Ambernath, Badlapur and Ulhasnagar have also witnessed an increase in admission rates.

During the last academic year, only 60% FYJC seats had filled up after the first cut-off lists were announced at colleges within Thane district. Experts attributed this to more awareness among students this year, especially in areas beyond city limits.

“There were special lectures conducted for aspirants in Ambernath, Badlapur and Mira Road regarding the online admission procedure,” said Dinesh Joshi, an academician from Satish Pradhan Dnyansadhana College, who is also a member of the Centralised Admission Process Committee.

“Many students are opting for colleges that have graduation courses alongside. The in-house quota at these colleges will be helpful for them in the future,” said Joshi.

Naresh Chandra, the director of Birla College of Arts, Science and Commerce, who is also a former pro vice-chancellor of the University of Mumbai (MU), said, “The low pass percentage must have induced panic among students; till last year, parents and students would wait for all cut-off lists and then choose their institute. However, most parents must have been worried that their children may not get another opportunity due to the low pass percentage. This has resulted in the rise in the number of admissions this year within Thane district.”

Although commerce has remained the popular choice for most FYJC students, this year many colleges saw an increase in demand for the science stream.

At St John’s Junior College, Mascarenhas said 51 out of the 59 science seats had been filled up after one round of admissions. “Only 49 out of 91 commerce seats had filled up. This is a complete turnaround from the past few years,” he said.

Kenneth Lobo, one of the students at the institute said he was initially not sure of getting admission for the science stream in any of Thane’s top colleges. “But the since the cut-offs for science in some institutes were lower than that of commerce, I got a seat in my preferred college,” said Lobo.

First Published: Jul 25, 2019 00:37 IST