CHENNAI: Out of the 97 post graduate courses offered by the cash-strapped University of Madras (UoM), at least 16 courses received only single-digit enrolment in the academic year 2024-25, while one course (MA in Financial Economics) had to be suspended for the year due to nil admission.
Last year, the 167-year-old institution had managed to fill 100% of the sanctioned seats only in 25 of its courses, with a few within the university suggesting that it was time to regroup this year’s admission, which is set to begin in August.
According to varsity officials, factors, including the lack of infrastructure and resources, contribute to the declining popularity of its courses.
“The university is functioning with a faculty strength that is 66% deficient. Of the sanctioned strength of 540, currently there are only 184 faculties available. In the non-teaching category, 96 posts are vacant, and many departments don’t have funds to upgrade their labs. These lacunae are certainly turning students away, as they expect the best of facilities,” said a professor.
“Every day the varsity is in news for the wrong reasons like faculty protests due to salary delays, or the varsity being forced to reduce guest faculty strength due to fund crunch. The government needs to chalk out a plan to save the university,” opined another professor.
On the other hand, despite the single-digit admissions against the sanctioned seats, the university continues to keep the courses running, putting immense burden on the finances of the institute, which is already struggling to meet its day-to-day expenses, officials said. This has exacerbated the institution’s budget deficit, which stands at Rs 149 crore for the current financial year.
As per the admission data of 2024-25 obtained from the university, the PG course in Women Studies, Buddhism and Education had only one student, as against a sanctioned strength of 10, 60, and 50, respectively. Similarly, for Siddhanta Philosophy and Practice, which has a sanctioned strength of 30 seats, only six were filled in the academic year.
Despite this, the university continues to offer these programmes, citing resistance from faculty and social organisations against shutting them down. “We cannot close any of the courses on our own as it will attract protests,” said an official in the varsity.
‘Government should appoint adequate faculty’
Offering multi-disciplinary courses is the USP of the UoM. Government should take measures to appoint adequate faculty, and create proper infrastructure to attract students, said SP Thyagarajan, former vice chancellor of the university