Heavy rain extension for Mumbai University admissions; applicants up 25%

MUMBAI: Mumbai University extended the admission schedule by a day due to heavy rains in the city. The university saw a 25% rise in the total number of students registering for admissions to city colleges till Tuesday evening, and the numbers are likely to go up due to the extension. Students can now apply to colleges till 3pm on Wednesday. The first merit list will be released at 11am on Thursday. Last year, around 2.6 lakh students had registered before the first merit list was out—it went up to 3.3 lakh this year. Principals attribute the rise in numbers to the uncertainty over admissions to professional courses and also over admissions outside Mumbai.
While Tuesday was the last day to register on the university portal for the online admission process, the extension is for students who may not have managed to complete the process due to heavy rain. Leeladhar Bansod, deputy registrar of the university, said some colleges had requested an extension for the online registration process. The schedule for subsequent merit lists will change slightly, said Bansod. The pandemic has forced the university and its affiliated colleges to go completely online for admissions this year. Since physical verification of documents is not possible this year, students will have to submit an undertaking to the colleges. Admissions will be given on provisional basis and will be confirmed after physical submissions later.
Data from the university’s enrolment section shows that 3.3 lakh registered students have filled 6.2 lakh applications (each student can fill multiple options) till Tuesday. However, last year’s 2.6 lakh students had filled around 7.8 lakh applications. It is difficult to ascertain the reason behind the drop in the numbers of applications at this stage, said an official. The rise in the registrations could be due to the uncertainty over the admissions to professional courses including engineering, medicine, law, architecture, among others, said the principal. He added that many would want to secure their admissions in traditional university courses for the time being.
Ashok Wadia, principal of Jai Hind College, said that they were expecting a significant drop in the numbers of outstation candidates applying to Mumbai colleges, but many have applied. Colleges are yet to compile application data.