64,866 FYJC aspirants allotted seats in special admission round

Around 64,866 first-year junior college (FYJC) aspirants were allotted seats in the special admission round conducted by the office of the deputy director of education (DYDE) on Wednesday. They had received 73,000 applications for the special round for nearly 190,000 vacant seats across junior colleges this year.

Around 64,866 first-year junior college (FYJC) aspirants were allotted seats in the special admission round conducted by the office of the deputy director of education (DYDE) on Wednesday. They had received 73,000 applications for the special round for nearly 190,000 vacant seats across junior colleges this year.

Around 64,866 first-year junior college (FYJC) aspirants were allotted seats in the special admission round conducted by the office of the deputy director of education (DYDE) on Wednesday. They had received 73,000 applications for the special round for nearly 190,000 vacant seats across junior colleges this year. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

“Of the total seats allotted in the third merit list, 38,871 students have been allotted colleges of their first preference, 10,041 students have been allotted seats in the second preference college and 5,159 students have been placed in colleges of their third preference,” said an official statement released by the office of DYDE, Mumbai region, on Wednesday. The statement also highlighted that of the total allotment in the third round, 5,279 students were allotted seats in arts stream, 37,485 in the commerce stream and 21,479 in the science stream.

Top colleges had very few or no seats to offer in popular courses for this special round. HR College in Churchgate, NM College in Vile Parle had no seats left to offer in the third merit list. Similarly, St Xavier’s College had no seats left to offer in the arts stream for the special round. Surprisingly, RA Podar College in Matunga, which had no seats left to offer in the third merit list, witnessed a few withdrawals, making way for few more students to get through the institute in the special round.

Other colleges witnessed a nearly 10-15% drop in cut-offs across streams. At Jai Hind College in Churchgate, arts cut-off dipped by 9% and commerce cut-off by 4%. The cut-off for science dipped by nearly 19% at the institute. At KC College in Churchgate, the overall cut-off dipped by 10-12%. At Mithibai College in Vile Parle, cut-off for arts and commerce went up by 1-2% while the science cut-off dipped.

While the number of vacant seats is on the higher side, this is not the first time that the authorities are conducting special rounds to fill up unoccupied seats in FYJC. In 2018, DYDE conducted nine rounds of admissions, after which nearly 72,800 seats still remained vacant. Similarly, in 2019, seat vacancy stood at around 130,000 after three rounds of online admissions, forcing authorities to conduct a special “first come, first serve” round.

117,883 FYJC aspirants were allotted seats in the first merit list on August 27, however nearly 50% students out of these did not confirm admissions. Similarly, 60,037 students were allocated seats and only 21,116 (35.17%) of those confirmed admissions. In the third round, 39,964 seats where allotted of which less than 25% students confirmed admissions this year.