Cut-offs fall as fewer apply under FYJC minority quota in Mumbai

Mumbai city news: The cut-offs for commerce stream — considered the most popular — fell by nearly 2% in Mumbai’s coveted colleges, followed by science and arts

Fewer students opted for first year junior college (FYJC) admissions under the minority quota, which brought down cut-offs (minimum marks for admission) in the first merit lists announced on Saturday evening. The cut-offs for commerce stream — usually the most popular — fell by nearly 2% in Mumbai’s most coveted colleges.

Principals said they received fewer applications for minority and in-house admissions compared to previous years owing to new admission rules, which prohibit students from applying under general category after they secure quota seats. (For representation)

According to principals, colleges received fewer applications for minority and in-house admissions compared to previous years owing to new admission rules, which prohibit students from applying under the general category after they secure quota seats.

Admissions to students from Gujarati linguistic minorities at Mithibai College, Vile Parle, closed at 86.2% for commerce in the first list, nearly 2% lower than last year’s 88.2%. Arts, too, dipped by a couple of points to 78.5%, whereas, science remained nearly the same at 70%. Similarly, at Narsee Monjee (NM) College of Commerce and Economics, Vile Parle, its sister institute, commerce dipped to 90% from last year’s 90.4%.

“Applications for minority quota were lower than our expectations this year,” said Rajpal Hande, principal of the college. Attributing this trend to the new admission rules that prevent quota students from opting for open category seats, Hande added, “Earlier, students booked their seats in quota and then tried for better colleges online, but this year they had to choose between the two, so many seemed to have opted to wait for online.” The trend was first noticed when science cut-offs for Christian minority students at St Xavier’s College, Fort, dropped by 6% for the first time in five years to 76.8% and arts by 2% to 83.2% in its first merit list declared last week. They fell further to 71.8% and 82.2% in the second merit list on Saturday.

Other blamed the low numbers on the admission website not functioning properly. “We expect that admissions will pick up by Tuesday, now that the admissions site is up and running again, after being shut for repairs,” said Hemlata Bagla, in-charge, principal, KC College, Churchgate, which is giving walk-in admissions to Sindhi linguistic students.

Some colleges, however, recorded higher cut-offs as more high-scorers applied there. “Although we received fewer applications compared to previous years, number of students scoring between 80% and 90% was high, driving our cut-offs up in science,” said Uma Shankar, principal, South Indian Education Society (SIES) College of Science and Arts, Sion. Its science cut-off soared to 85% from 75% last year. Arts remained low at 60.80%.