25,000 FYJC aspirants yet to get seats after 4 rounds

Nearly 25,000 students, who have applied for first-year junior college (FYJC) admissions in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), are yet be admitted to any college at the end of four rounds.

As per data shared by the state education department, nearly 1,30,000 seats are vacant across the MMR.

Admissions under the special merit list, which was the last merit-based admission round, concluded on August 19. Under the special round, a total of 56,375 students had applied for admission. Of these, only 28,978 students ended up confirming their admissions.

“Some students who did not confirm admissions in the special round might have taken admission under the various quotas like minority, management and in-house. Leaving aside such students, nearly 25,000 students are yet to get a seat,” said an official from the state education department.

Students who could not get a seat in any of the rounds so far or who did not confirm their admission despite getting into a college can do so in the first-come-first-served rounds, which will begin from today. In the first such round, students with more than 80% can claim seats from those left on the admissions website.

This year, the number of vacancies has almost doubled from 2018 when 72,000 seats had been vacant at the end of admission season. “The government has added 5-8% seats in around 100 colleges which are adding to the vacancies this year. While there are takers for Commerce and Arts seats in prominent colleges, Science seats are lying vacant there as most students are opting for smaller junior colleges. Besides, several additional divisions have been newly approved which might have added to the vacancies,” said the principal of a south Mumbai college on the condition of anonymity.