FYJC admission: Around 1.9 lakh vacant seats to be reallocated in special round

First-year junior college (FYJC) aspirants will get another chance to seek admission in colleges of their choice as the authorities will announce a special round on September 22. As per information shared by the office of the deputy director of education, around 1.9 lakh seats across junior colleges remain vacant.

First-year junior college (FYJC) aspirants will get another chance to seek admission in colleges of their choice as the authorities will announce a special round on September 22. As per information shared by the office of the deputy director of education (DYDE), around 1.9 lakh seats of 3.2 lakh intake capacity across junior colleges remain vacant after three rounds of online seat allocation.

The intake capacity across junior colleges for FYJC admission stands at 3.2 lakh seats for FYJC (For representation)

“Once again interested students can refill the college preference list and a special merit round will be announced. We will decide the further course of action based on seat vacancy after the special round,” said an official from DYDE’s office.

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 1.3 lakh after three rounds of online admissions, forcing authorities to conduct a special “first come, first serve” round to fill up vacant seats.

Since 2020, however, the number of vacant seats has been increasing. From 1.84 lakh seats vacant in junior colleges after first three rounds in 2020, the number stands at 1.9 lakh this year.

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

“In the past two years, scores of students from neighbouring states and cities who would otherwise opt for Mumbai colleges have given the city a skip due to the pandemic. Since hostels are also still shut, many students from outside Mumbai have chosen to continue their education in their hometown since it’s a matter of two years only,” said TA Shiware, speaking for the management of Wilson College. He is also the chairman of Mumbai Association of Non-Government Colleges.