Second-rung colleges have most vacant seats

This year, there were not many takers for junior college admission seats in second-rung colleges.

More than 16 lakh students scrambled for a few seats in prominent colleges, driving the cut-off percentages over 95%, smaller colleges, where plenty of seats were available, did not receive many applications, statistics revealed.

“Students only want admission in top colleges where students who score well also apply. So, though there might be plenty of seats to choose from, students, the competition amongst students is only for those few seats in top colleges,'' said TA Shiware, principal of KPB Hinduja College at Charni Road.

“This system creates an inequality, where we see cut-offs not dropping from 90% in some colleges, while other colleges have vacant seats,” he added

According to the information given by the deputy director of education's office, at the end of the final round of online admissions there were more than 1.03 lakh vacant seats, and even after the offline admissions, 40,000 college seats are still reportedly vacant.

"These seats belong to colleges that are not very popular amongst students. There are a bunch of colleges where not even a single student has opted for. There is a monotony of a few colleges in the city and students do not want to get into other small colleges as they think they lack quality,'' said a senior education official, requesting anonymity.

Kirti Narain, principal of Jai Hind College at Churchgate, said the problem of vacant seats can be solved if the admissions are moved offline.

“In the online process, students get colleges they do not want and hence, they do not take admission there. But in the offline process, students will apply to those colleges where they think they have a chance of getting admission. So, students not scoring well will automatically apply to smaller colleges,” she said.