50 times more forms sold than seats available in top city colleges

MUMBAI: The city’s top colleges have seen a surge in students queuing up for self-financed courses as well as BCom. Most of these colleges have issued forms 10 to 50 times the number of seats available with them. The admission process began on May 28 and the sale of forms for admission to first-year degree courses ended on Wednesday.
While the BMS course at H R College, Churchgate, which has an intake capacity of 120 students, sold more than 3,300 forms, for the same course in K C College, Churchgate, nearly 2,900 forms were issued for 60 seats.At Ruia College, Matunga, around 1,100 forms were issued for the BMM course with 120 seats, while K P B Hinduja College, Churchgate, with 60 seats available for BMM, issued close to 630 forms.
Such self-financed courses have been witnessing immense demand from the time they were introduced, say principals.
“Students opt for BAF since it is a good alternative for those who want to do accounts and finance, but not CA or BCom. BBI and BFM are preferred by students who desire jobs in financial institutions and banks. These specialized courses give a better direction to what students feel their careers should be,” said Indu Shahani, principal, H R College, citing these as reasons for the courses’ popularity.
Colleges have also seen a renewed interest in the traditional Arts and Science streams. Subjects such as Psychology and Economics are popular in BA, while those who wish to pursue a CA or CS usually choose BCom, said principals.
Since such conventional courses have a quota for in-house students, fewer seats are available for those from outside the college. “In BA and BSc, the majority of the seats are occupied by in-house students. Of the rest, 50% seats are reserved for students from the minority quota. This leaves very few seats for students from the general category,” said Agnelo Menezes, principal, St Xavier’s College, Churchgate.
“Cut-offs depend on the performance of students, which has been superlative,” said Shobana Vasudevan, principal, R A Podar College, Matunga, on expected rise in cut-offs. Suhas Pednekar, principal, Ruia College, Matunga, said, “It is only a question of more students wanting a specific college or course that leads to unequal distribution.”