Mumbai colleges may cash in on offline admission

The new FYJC online admission process is not being received well by both students and education experts. Moving the bifocals’ admissions offline, as per a recent GR by the state government, will only lead to colleges demanding donations, they say.

College principals, too, aren’t convinced that the change guarantees an early start to the academic year. Stating that a separate bifocals merit list will unnecessarily stretch the admission process, TA Shiware, member of the online admissions review committee and principal of KPB Hinduja College, said, “As bifocals is not any separate stream, but a combination of subjects, students will anyway have to apply online for the regular arts, science and commerce stream.”

Sceptical of the new process, Fr Frazer Mascarenhas, St Xaviers College principal, said, ‘’Once the bifocal seats are allotted, students failing to bag a seat will shift to other colleges and once again we will be left with vacant seats, thus necessitating offline admissions once again.’’ The changes have not solved the problem, but have only inverted the admission process, he added.Tarini Vyas, a student, said, ‘’There is a huge demand for the limited bifocals seats and colleges may end up asking for donations, exactly how it was before the online admission process came in.’’