In a major development, Mumbai University (MU), which is city’s largest public university, is witnessing a steady drop in the count of candidates over two successive academic years.
Meanwhile, it has come to light that the rise of private and deemed universities has accentuated the trend.
This has been attributed to the factors including economic distress and the emergence of more options in India and abroad.
The highest drop is within Mumbai, where numbers in city and suburban colleges fell 12.5 per cent in 2021-22 over the previous year in traditional programmes, including the popular ones at the undergraduate level.
According to data revealed by the MU, over 37,000 fewer students enrolled in 2021-22 as compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, in Mumbai, Thane and Palghar, there are at least 30 per cent fewer students than the numbers in the admission register.
In Mumbai, total student count in the traditional streams had dipped to roughly 3 lakhs Mumbai in 2020-21, which went further down to 2.6 lakhs in 2021-22.
In absolute numbers, commerce courses recorded the sharpest drop in enrolments (21,147), but in percentage terms, it was in the science stream that the city faced the biggest reduction (18 per cent).
Experts said the situation is similar in Thane, Palghar, Raigad and Sindhudurg.
The admission slump was deeper when the academic year 2020-21 opened amidst the crucial time of the pandemic. The inflated numbers were also due to the fact that everyone was promoted in online exams, experts added.
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