More choices for students as University of Mumbai gets 14 new institutes, will add 5,000 seats

The Maharashtra government has given the go-ahead to 14 new educational institutes, including five degree colleges in Mumbai,

In response to the University of Mumbai’s (MU) perspective plan for 2018-2019, the Maharashtra government has given the go-ahead to 14 new educational institutes, including five degree colleges in Mumbai, for the new academic year. These comprise a law college in Malad, a women’s college in Bandra, a night college in Chembur, and one college each in Dahisar and Wadala.

The university’s perspective plan for 2018-19 had 62 slots for new colleges. (HT file photo)

Last month, the state had approved 62 new colleges, as well as new courses and divisions in existing colleges, across the state. MU got 14 new institutes, taking the tally of affiliated colleges to 788. The university’s perspective plan for 2018-19 had 62 slots for new colleges, 15 of which were suggested by the state.

The state also approved 28 new courses and seven new divisions in affiliated colleges. The new colleges, courses and divisions will add 4,620 undergraduate and 500 post-graduation seats to MU’s annual intake.

To fill the slots for new colleges, the government had invited proposals from education trusts and in February, only 22 were approved for the current academic year. Letters of intent (LoIs) were issued to the trusts, which had applied to set up these 22 institutes in time to start classes in the academic year of 2018-19. The trusts were required to meet norms related to infrastructure and faculty, which they claimed to have achieved within months of being given approval.

In April, the university forwarded the applications by the trust to the state , which gave its final approval to 14.While the new seats will offer aspirants more choices, the admission process for undergraduate courses has been gripped with uncertainty since June 21, a day before the second merit list for admissions was to be released, when the state requested MU stall degree college admissions for 10 days, so that it could challenge Bombay high court’s 2017 decision to exempt minority institutes from reservation for socially-marginalised sections.