Thane colleges have less seats to offer

With an increase in the pass percentage of SSC results in Thane district this year, the number of seats available for first year junior college (FYJC) is far lesser. Around 19,162 students will be without a college if they decide to seek for admissions within Thane. With an increase in the population, and in spite of increasing the number of seats, they will still fall short as the pass percentage has increased by 10% as compared to last year.

There are around 1,10,540 seats available this year, out of these, the number of students who have cleared the SSC exams are 1,33,654. It clearly shows a shortage of seats within the district. There are 17,910 seats available in arts, 54,620 in commerce and 33,670 in science. With around 33,910 students receiving distinction, 3,708 repeaters have also cleared the exams and the pass percentage has risen to 89.75.

Securing admissions in the desired college would be tough within Thane district in spite of the high score.

Amongst the 1,10,540 seats available, minority are 22,035 and management seats are 5,537. So the rest would be a struggle for the seats in the open category. "Two years back, 130 new institutes had come up, which included FYJC as well. Permission was granted for these institutes keeping in mind the huge shortfall of seats but even this will not be of any help this year," said RJ Rajput, secretary, principals association of Thane.

Thane and Pune has been developing quickly in the past few years and this has led to a rise in many private universities. But this year there will be fewer seats in FYJC, if all decide to study within Thane district.

"As Thane district comprises Thane, Kalyan, Dombivli, Navi Mumbai, Bhayander and other places, the chances of students moving over to Mumbai are more. When students get more marks they tend to move out of their vicinity and look out for admissions in other privileged colleges. This may reduce the pressure in Thane colleges," said a senior official from the University.