Mumbai University noticed an increase of 150% in since graduates in 10 years, steepest among three streams

The past decade has noticed a remarkable shift in undergraduate students preference vis-à-vis the three traditional streams of commerce, science and arts. Science stream which was not considered as very lucrative option by many earlier, has noted maximum jump in terms of the number of students which received graduate degree from Mumbai University. Still, the stream remains the most sought after among students after completion of Class XII.

Sudhakar Tamboli, Mumbai University Senate member shared a data according to which commerce remains the most popular stream among Mumbai students. The number of students graduating in science has grown 153%-from 6,559 in 2001 to 16,579 in 2010. By comparison, commerce recorded a growth of 119%, from 32,942 students to 72, 196 during the period.

Madhuri Pejaver, science dean, said science colleges have been losing out their good students to engineering and medical institutes for several years. She said, “Though medical seats have not increased, the number of engineering colleges shot up tremendously in the past decade. Students began opting for engineering more than ever. The state, though, saw a reverse trend when thousands of seats in engineering colleges remained unoccupied.” She further added, enrolment in science has changed post 2005-06 when enrolment in engineering colleges started to dwindle.

Pajever said, “Students started realizing that just getting an engineering degree from any college is not enough. To get a good job, one has to get a degree from a college of repute, with good faculty and infrastructure. This worked in favour of science. Engineering graduates were also getting jobs with a pay of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 a month, so many students began to prefer science.”

She further added that some of the talented students pursue science at the undergraduate level too, and that this positive trend might also make good changes in research activities in the near future.

Father Frazer Mascarenhas, principal of St. Xavier’s College on the other side, attributed the growth to increase in accessibility to colleges offering science. The principal said, “More colleges have started offering science. Today, we have a college in Ratnagiri offering geology, which was not the case earlier. New disciplines in science such as biotechnology and microbiology are being offered across colleges in the university.” He further added that, still the talented students prefer to pursue courses in medicine or engineering.

In past decade, the courses in law and technology have also seen a noticeable increase. The number of students completing their degrees in engineering has risen from 6,019 in 2001 to 17,186 in 2010. Besides, graduates passing from the law colleges have noticed the maximum growth of 223% among all other faculties in the university.