Mumbai: Courses in engineering and MBA, introduced for working professionals and lateral entry, have failed to take off in the state, three years after their inception.For lateral entry MBA/MMS admissions, over 4,500 candidates showed interest in 2024-25, but eventually only 1,950 students secured admissions. The number dropped further to 1,805 in 2025-26. Demand for courses meant for working professionals has also remained poor. Enrolments for working professionals have not crossed even two- or three-digit figures over the last two years.Colleges said the courses were not well publicised and that many working professionals were unable to produce the mandatory proforma from their workplace for admission. While fewer colleges initially showed interest in offering these programmes, some are deciding to gradually shut them down.Sujata Chincholkar, director of Fr C Rodrigues Institute of Management Studies, said the courses for working professionals have not been adequately publicised. “Industry representatives are not aware of these programmes and, as a result, many are unwilling to provide the employer’s proforma declaring that the candidate is employed with them and that they have no objection to their admission. Against the 30 seats we had, we received enquiries from over 15 candidates, but only one managed to produce the proforma. The govt could publicise the programme better and relax this particular norm. Employers are unlikely to object to a course conducted in the evenings and on weekends,” she said.The college sought permission to discontinue its MBA/MMS programme for working professionals this year. Across the state, despite more than 500 seats being available in this programme, less than 100 students have secured admissions.At VJTI, three of their five programmes started for working professionals are doing well. The seats in the postgraduate programme for structural engineering and undergraduate in civil and electrical are 100% full, said director Sachin Kore, adding that the PG computer science programme has not taken off the way it was expected. The institute is now planning to move to a different model by getting industry professionals, termed ‘professors of practice’, to teach in the programme. The institute offers 30 seats in UG courses for electrical, computers and civil.For lateral entry, colleges have to rely on seats that remain vacant in the second year of the MBA programme. “If only two students fail in the first year, then we can open only those two seats for lateral entry,” said a principal. She, however, added that students opting for the one-year MBA mainly prefer top-tier colleges. While 7,900 seats were available for MBA/MMS lateral entry in 2024-25, the number dropped to 6,169 the following year. The MCA programme for working professionals, meanwhile, did not find any takers over the last two years.Similarly, direct second-year engineering programmes had an intake capacity of over 2,000 seats, but the number of students securing admissions did not cross 400 last year.In numbers—————————————–2024-25——————————–2025-26Courses————————————-Intake—–Admitted——————Intake—-AdmittedDirect Second Year Engg (WP)-——–2,221——-291—————————2,121—–359MBA (WP)————————————385——-33——————————-531——-78ME/MTech (WP)——————————232——–43——————————183—–46MCA (WP)————————————-30———-0———————————-90——-0MBA (LE)————————————-7,900–—1,950——————————6,169-—1,805Total——————————————-10,768——2,317————————–9,094—2,288(WP: Working Professionals, LE: Lateral Entry, Source: State’s CET Cell)
