Mumbai: FYJC online admissions to get ‘student-friendly’

This year, aspirants will be able to apply to fewer colleges – a maximum of 10 - and have the option to change their preference after every round. Admissions to reserved seats, which were filled at college-level earlier, will now be done online.

Learning lessons from last year’s goof-ups, the state’s education department on Saturday revamped the admission process for first-year junior college (FYJC) to make it more ‘student-friendly’ and flexible.

Picture for representation. (Hindustan Times)

This year, aspirants will be able to apply to fewer colleges – a maximum of 10 - and have the option to change their preference after every round. Admissions to reserved seats, which were filled at college-level earlier, will now be done online.

According to the government resolution issued by the department on Saturday evening, the changes are based on the feedback received over the past few years. “After receiving several complaints last year, we decided to improve the process. A principals’ meeting was held on December 29. The recommendations made in the audit report for last year’s admission, too, have been taken into account,” said Suvarna Kharat, under-secretary of the department.

Although most reforms will make the process easy for students, one change might upset students. They will be allowed to apply to only one stream, instead of the earlier two. But they will be able to change their choice of stream during admissions.

The choice of junior colleges will not be restricted to zone or wards. Students can pick a minimum of one and a maximum of 10 colleges in their region.

To students’ relief, they will not need to take provisional admission after each round. Students who get their first preference will have to pay the complete fees and secure the admission. They will not be allotted seats in further rounds, reads the GR. Those who are happy with the seat allotted to them can also pay fees. Only those who do not take admission can wait for further rounds.

A ‘zero round’ will be conducted for online admissions to the Higher Secondary Vocational Course (HSVC) and quota seats – religious or linguistic minority, in-house and management. If seats remain vacant, they will be filled on a first-come-first serve basis. This hopefully will end malpractices by colleges in these admissions, said officials.