VIJAYAWADA: The admission rate in degree colleges across the State is coming down every year. In majority of the colleges, the admission rate is as low as 25 per cent and the remaining seats are remaining vacant. In order to change this trend, the Education Department has decided to introduce new courses 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 depend on fee reimbursement due to low admission rate.“The admission rate depends on 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 by industry experts at AP HRD. 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. Each course will have 30 seats. College managements can select from these courses to offer to the students.
List of new courses
Actuarial Science, Applied Statistics, Renewable Energy Management, Data Science, Multimedia, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things, Web Enabled Tech-nologies, Analytical Chemistry, Industrial Chemistry, Cement chemistry, Organic Farming, Horticu-lture, Seed Techno-logy, Aquaculture Technology, Seric-ulture Management, Paramedical Scie-nce, Tourism and Travel Management, Archaeology, Econ-ometrics, Journalism and Mass Communication
Degree colleges
145
Govt degree colleges in State
1,117
private unaided degree colleges
25%
admission rate of a majority of degree colleges