MUMBAI, July 7: Despite the concern over the so-called `seat crunch' in degree colleges, there are still over 2000 seats lying vacant in each of the three streams of science, arts and commerce at the end of the first year degree college admissions.According to an admission chart recently prepared by Mumbai University, there are exactly 2,855 seats vacant in the commerce stream, 2,086 seats in the science stream and 2,890 seats in arts.Ironically, though, the concerned students are still under the impression that so far as college education is concerned, it's the end of the academic road for them.Principal secretary of Higher and Technical Education, Navjeevan L Lakhanpal, has an explanation for this situation. ``Since most students are trying for admissions in well-known colleges, there is an apparent shortage of seats. Further, as the degree admission process is not yet centralised, it is not immediately known what the seat position is in the 100-odd university-affiliated colleges,'' said Lakhanpal.``Last year too, a similar situation had prevailed: around 4,000 students had applied for seats after the admissions were over, and most of the candidates were easily accommodated. We had also opened a few new divisions in colleges for the purpose,'' Lakhanpal added.This year, the first merit list was reportedly put up in all colleges on June 17, while admissions were fully finalised by individual colleges by June 23. Following this, Mumbai University asked the colleges to submit their admission reports so that other students could be accommodated.A Senate member of the university, Amarjit Singh Manhas, who was part of the 20-member flying squad during degree admissions, remarked: ``The varsity has done its best to provide seats to students by opening an admission cell till July 4. However, I do feel that if the entire system was computerised through centralisation, the initial confusion would not have been there.'' Still, students complain there are hardly any seats in the ``good'' colleges. ``There are 45 commerce seats vacant in Maharashtra College in Byculla and 111 seats at Mittal College in Malad, but no one wants to go there,'' some students commented.Instead, they are hopeful of getting in at better institutes like R A Poddar College in Matunga which has three empty seats in commerce, D G Ruparel College where there are 10 seats and Sydenham College of Economics and Commerce, which has 17 seats. Reportedly, the heaviest demand for seats is in commerce.
