In a promising bit of news from the University of Madras, there was a huge spike in the numbers of students enrolling for distance mode programmes. As much as 80 per cent rise was seen, taking the total students enrolled in 2021-22 to 22,000 which is up from 12,000 students in 2020-21.
With 8,000 students joining this year's batch, the MBA programme was the most popular choice for the applicants. the director of the university's Institute of Distance Education (IDE), K Ravichandran said, "The number of admissions has increased to pre-pandemic level. Besides MBA, courses like MCom, BCom, MSc (Cyber Forensics), MSc (Counselling Psychology) and BA (English) are in huge demand."
The IDE provides 16 UG programmes, 22 PG programmes, 21 diploma programmes and 16 certificate programmes. It is expected that the numbers will go past the pre-COVID mark as there is still a month to go before the admission window ends. The UGC has permitted IDE to offer BBA, BCom, MCom, BA French and MA in Journalism and Mass Communication, Public Administration, Anthropology, Economics and English. The varsity has applied to the UGC to get the approval for providing 11 new skill and job-oriented degree programmes.
Vice-Chancellor S Gowri said, "Certificate courses like design thinking, artificial intelligence like at IITs and IIMs will be offered in future. Along with job-oriented courses, we also want to offer courses which will create socially aware citizens with ethical values."
