India, May 27 -- Around 850 colleges affiliated to the University of Mumbai announced their first general merit list for degree admissions on Tuesday, revealing rising demand for professional courses.

This was revealed by lower cutoff percentages in traditional courses compared to last year. In contrast, colleges show high cutoffs, particularly in professional courses, vis-a-vis traditional courses.

At St Xavier's College, Dhobi Talao, for instance, the cutoff for traditional Bachelor of Arts (BA) courses fell to is 87%, from 90% last year. However, the BA in Psychology and English courses commanded cutoffs of 90.67%, and the BA Economics and Statistics cutoff is 88.17%.

As part of the online admission process, which began on May 6, an...