Students have nothing to worry about: Tawde

MUMBAI: While admissions have always been a stressful period for students, the anxiety levels reached new heights this year with admissions to almost all under-graduate

MUMBAI: While admissions have always been a stressful period for students, the anxiety levels reached new heights this year with admissions to almost all under-graduate courses in the state delayed. Be it a two week delay in starting start basic pre-admission registrations for undergraduate courses in the University of Mumbai to the unwarranted delay in admission to law or medical courses, it has been a bad time for students. State education minister Vinod Tawde explained how they will streamline the admission process.

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Too many changes in the higher education sector has led to a delay in admissions this year and this has left students anxious. What does the government have to tell students?

Whenever a system witnesses a change for the good of its people, we receive much flak because of the temporary inconvenience that follows. However, once everything is set in place, people appreciate the move. In case of higher education, while too many changes have been introduced, each has been put in place to ensure better facilities for students and will only result in pushing them towards a better future.

Admissions to law schools are yet to take off, even though Class XII results were declared in May. The entrance exam was conducted on the third week of June and students are still waiting for clarity.?

Changes into the law faculty were introduced keeping in mind a Supreme Court order which stated that admissions to all professional colleges should be conducted based on a common entrance test (CET), which is what we did this year. We are facing teething problems as of now but we assure you the admission process will begin at the earliest and students have nothing to worry about.

University of Mumbai has been facing difficulties for quite some time now and the lack of a state universities Act is making matters worse for students. How does the government plan to correct these errors?

One of the biggest problems that the university is facing at present is the huge number of examinations that they conduct every semester, the burden of which is leading to several other problems including delay in announcing results and conducting admissions. We are currently working to put together a strong examination department to solve most of the problems. The state universities Act should be introduced by the end of this year..

Delay in admissions ultimately means loss of academic time; how are institutes planning to make up for the loss in time once classes finally begin?

Students should be assured that no short-cuts will be implemented because our aim is to ensure that students don’t miss out on anything academically. The adjustments we are planning to introduce are reducing holidays for students so that colleges can cover the required portion in time.