MUMBAI, May 28 -- As approximately 850 colleges affiliated with the University of Mumbai announced their first general merit list for degree admissions on Tuesday, the lower cut-off percentages for traditional courses as compared to last year, as well as the higher cut-off for professional courses told a story. At St Xavier's College, Dhobi Talao, the cut-off dropped by 1.83 percentage points compared to last year (90% as opposed to last year's 91.83%) for the traditional Bachelor of Arts (BA) courses. Analysing the trend, Rajendra Shinde, principal of St Xavier's College, said, "This year, we introduced two new courses, BA Psychology and Economics and BA Economics and Statistics for which we had a higher cut-off compared to traditional courses." The BA Psychology and Economics and BA Economics and Statistics cut-offs stood at 93.33% and 89.83% respectively. "With these two new courses, it shows that students are preferring self-financed or professional courses, which have pre-decided major and minor courses as advocated in the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020," added Shinde. Meanwhile, at R A Podar College, Matunga, the traditional B Com cut-off showed a marginal increase (94.33% compared to 94% last year). Self-financed and professional courses such as BCom in Banking and Finance and BCom in Banking and Insurance saw an increase in the cut-off compared to last year. Commerce and allied courses continue to attract a greater number of applicants. Minu Madlani, Principal, KPB Hinduja College of Commerce and Economics said, "This year's merit list reflects a growing shift in how students are approaching commerce education. The high cut-off of 90% shows that more students are actively seeking courses that offer not just academic knowledge but real-world skills and industry exposure." While analysing the trends in the science stream, Shinde said, "New Age courses like BSc in Biotechnology and Computational Biology are much in demand among students." Taking this point forward, Preeta Nilesh, principal of Vaze-Kelkar College, Mulund, stated that the traditional BSc was showing a downward trend but the demand for IT was growing. A total of 253,370 students registered for pre-admission, submitting 811,643 applications across various undergraduate courses in the online admission process, which began on May 8. The process is being conducted in accordance with NEP 2020 and a directive from the Government of Maharashtra dated April 20, 2023. The programmes on offer include three-year degree programmes, four-year Honours and Honours with Research programmes, and five-year integrated programmes that offer multiple entry and exit options....