Against the sanctioned strength of 60 seats, only one student took admission into the Master's in Buddhism course in the academic year 2022-23 at the University of Madras. This is not the sole case, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
Currently, the university is running at least a dozen such master's degree courses which have single digit enrollments. The admission figures are in single digits but to cater to the learning needs of these handful of students, each of the courses has not less than two faculty members, which include one regular faculty member and one guest faculty.
Despite the minimal admissions against the sanctioned seats, the university is running the courses, which is putting an immense burden on the finances of the institute which is already struggling to meet its expenses, informed the varsity officials.
The very many courses
According to the data obtained from the university, the postgraduate course in Saiva Sidhhantha Philosophy and Practice has a sanctioned strength of 30 seats but in the academic year 2022-23, only four students took admission to it. The department has one regular professor and one guest faculty.
Similarly, Sanskrit, Hindi and Vaishnavism courses have four, three and seven students respectively in the first year against a sanctioned strength of 10 each. Vaishnavism and Sanskrit departments have been functioning with one assistant professor and one guest faculty while the Hindi department has one professor, one assistant professor and guest faculties. Buddhism is functioning with one assistant professor.
Apart from language and religious studies courses, demand for subjects like MSc in Yoga, MA in Development Administration and MSc in Material Science courses are quite poor. The three courses have just eight students against 20 seats. While MA in Education has just three students against 50 sanctioned seats.
According to varsity officials, the demand for language courses and religious thought courses has been declining over the past few years. But still, the university is unable to close down the courses with low enrollments due to fear of protests from students and social organisations. Though recently Higher Education Minister, K Ponmudy announced the department will wind up the courses in government arts and science colleges which have low enrollment and will open new courses in its place. However, University of Madras is unable to do the same.
Is closing down courses an option?
"If the issue of closing down courses is discussed in syndicate meetings, there is never a consensus on it. If the university decides to close down any course, which has become obsolete, there will be a huge uproar over it. So we are forced to run these courses and deal with the financial consequences," said a senior administrative official of the university.
Citing an example, he said "There was a Centre for South Asian Studies in the university and it failed to admit even one student for 12 years. Still, the university had not closed it; ultimately in 2019, it was closed down by UGC (Univeristy Grants Commission). The professor working in the Centre retired in 2022 and the assistant professor was transferred to the Defence studies department, but we are now facing audit objections for it as they have asked why we were paying salary from university funds till 2022 for a closed centre," said the senior official.
"The university runs 97 master's degree courses and it's high time, the institute should think of closing down courses which have become irrelevant now and start new courses which will provide employment opportunities to students," said a professor of the university.
However, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, S Gowri, has expressed his helplessness on the issue. "We are expecting that enrollment of students in these courses will increase in coming years. I cannot take any decision solely for closing down the courses," said Gowri.
