A couple of weeks remain for admissions to close, colleges are seeing a good number of applicants for commerce courses both in government and private colleges in the education hub of Mangaluru. As usual, science seems to have a steady demand. While students applying for humanities have inclined to new courses like Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Journalism than just the traditional history or political science.
While some associate a drop in applicants for humanities for varied reasons, looking at it as a slowly dying stream, others have seen a revival in new subjects with their whopping demand. University College which is still filling up BA seats and has extended its deadline to May 28, while Journalism, English Literature and Geography gain popularity. Fewer pre university colleges offer Arts maybe why there's a lesser demand at BA level, said principal of St Agnes College Sr Jeswina about traditional BA courses. However, the college's new journalism course that started the previous year is picking pace. A source from Governement First Grade Colleges, fears traditional BA is closing are down in all GFGC in the city. The unit at Carstreet however is witnessing a jump in demand for BSW admissions from 19 in the previous years to 25 seats while traditional BA has just touched the minimum limit. St Aloysius College has introduced 'performing arts' as a subject in humanity.
Yakshagana and other local art forms will be taught, keeping the local performing culture alive, said principal Praveen Martis.
Traditional courses while seeing a dip in numbers are noticing a larger share of meritorious students. This is a new trend in humanities, these students are very focussed on clearing the UPSC, said University College principal Uday Kumar MA.
Many colleges received an overwhelming response for Commerce stream this year too. University College closed its admission for commerce on May 15 with a surplus of 600 applicants. St Aloysius College added two batches for BCom , an additional 280 seats which were filled to capacity. St Agnes College introduced a BCom professional course with CA and CS, with few seats left to fill. Governement First Grade College Carstreet saw greater demand for traditional commerce course than its Bachelor in Business Administration.
Students are seen switching over to Commerce where most of their peers are. Science and Statistics student Neil Gregory switched over to Commerce which seemed to have a far bigger basket of opportunities than the other two streams. Rahul who took up Commerce with CPT (CA foundation course) in PUC is looking to enrol for BCom professional, that will groom him to be a CA.
While students wait for their NEET results, seats for Sciences are filled up in most colleges. While this may be seen as hedging by those students who may not make the cut for the professional courses, college administrator believes it is a part of a new trend that has taken shape over past few years. Extremely high scorers are picking basic sciences over Engineering and Medical courses, showing an inclination towards research, they say.
Overall, several colleges complained of slow admissions this year, owing it to students slacking off as exams were done early, or waiting for the NEET results. A member from a government first grade college in the city said admissions were slow overall as admissions of guest faculty in the previous year was delayed and many students were not given laptops as promised, despite tender being awarded. St Aloysius College however stood out with a surplus of 1,300 applications after the college. The college had started its online portal for applications this year, which seems to have become a hit as students abroad were to apply without the hassle of coming down to submit the applications physically.
