Principal of the college Dr Rajesh Shinde said, “This can take a bit longer also but we are definitely working toward setting up a new model to effectively accommodate all students and courses.”

Founded in 1869 by Jesuits, the college is making the most use of the available space around. The college is already using premises of St Xavier’s High School building which is relatively free post noon. “The college began from the premises of the school. And now we are using some of those classes to run junior college as well as the commerce course. Additionally, if any new course is proposed by faculty members they are encouraged to schedule it in the afternoon,” said Dr Shinde.

He continued, “Considering that we run in the heritage structure, there is no room for horizontal or vertical development, but the number of students and courses are increasing. Apart from natural growth in numbers, with implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which encourages academic flexibility, various new subject combinations are now offered in college for students to choose from.”

But Dr Shinde pointed out that this has also led to students having to spend more hours on the college campus as there need to be gaps between the classes. “A student who comes to college at 8 am, ends up staying on campus till 5 pm to attend classes. We have students coming from as far as Vasai, Virar among all. We have to ensure that students are not drained by long hours in college in addition to travel hassles. They need to have adequate time to study.”

The college believes that adopting a shift system will resolve several of these issues. The committee will visit institutes such as Loyola College in Chennai which already runs such a practice. After studying such models the committee will suggest a plan to match the college’s individual requirement.