The admission rate in degree colleges across the State is coming down year on year. In majority of the colleges, the admission rate is as low as 25 per cent and the remaining seats would remain vacant. In order to change the downward trend, the Education Department has decided to introduce new courses, mainly focusing on industry requirement.
There are 145 government and 1,117 private unaided degree colleges across the State. However, a majority of the private unaided colleges are depending on fee reimbursement as the admission rate is very low.
“The admission rate depends on the nature of the colleges. While good colleges register 100 per cent admission rate, there are no takers for many courses in most of the colleges. The new courses are being designed in such a way that the students get placements right after their graduation,” said Panda Das, In-charge Special commissioner for Higher education.
As part of the reforms, 25 new courses will be introduced in all colleges. For this, 350 faculty members were trained at AP HRD by industry experts. These courses were introduced in 12 autonomous colleges across the State in the last academic year on a pilot basis.
The Commissioner of Collegiate Education had constituted subject committees with 45 lecturers from 12 conventional subjects for identifying and designing new market-oriented courses. The Subject Committee members visited local industries, organisations, professionals and commercial outlets across the State and discussed market needs, job opportunities and related requirements before designing the new courses.
The new courses include trending subjects such as IoT, cloud computing, data science, tourism and travel management. Each course will have 30 seats and the college management can select from these courses to offer to the students from this academic year.
List of new courses:
1. Actuarial Science
2. Applied Statistics
3. Renewable Energy Management
4. Data Science
5. Multimedia
6. Cloud Computing
7. Internet of Things
8. Web-Enabled Technologies
9. Analytical Chemistry
10. Industrial Chemistry
11. Cement chemistry
12. Organic Farming
13. Horticulture
14. Seed Technology
15. Aquaculture Technology
16. Sericulture Management
17. Paramedical Science
18. Tourism and Travel Management
19. Archaeology
20. History Writing
21. Econometrics
22. Office Management and Secretarial Practice
23. Journalism and Mass Communication
24. English for the Digital Age
25. Functional Telugu
