CHENNAI: Against the sanctioned strength of 60 seats, only one student took admission into the Masters of Buddhism course for 2022-23 in the University of Madras. But, this is not an isolated case. Currently, there are at least a dozen other such courses in the university with single digit enrolments.
To teach a handful number of students, each course has no less than two faculty members. So, why has the university still not junked these courses? “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 is a lot of opposition to 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, it was not shut 2019, when the UGC shut finally it down. The professor working in the centre retired only in 2022 and the assistant professor was transferred to defence studies department, but we are now facing audit objections for it. They are questioning us why were we paying salary from university funds till 2022 for a closed centre,” said the senior official.
“The university runs 97 master degree courses and it’s high time some of these courses are junked,” said a professor on conditions of anonymity. However, Vice chancellor S Gowri, has expressed helplessness on the issue. “We are expecting enrolments to go up, but I cannot take any decision on closing down the courses solely,” he added.
According to data obtained from the university, postgraduate course in Saiva Sidhhantha Philosophy and Practice has a sanctioned strength of 30 seats but in 2022-23, only four students took admission. Similarly, Sanskrit, Hindi and Vaishnavism courses have four, three and seven students respectively against a sanctioned strength of 10 each. 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 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 officials, the demand for language courses and religious thought courses have been declining, but still the university is unable to close down the courses due to a fear of protest from the students and social organisations. Recently, Higher Education minister K Ponmudy had announced the department will wind up courses in government arts and science colleges which have low enrolments.