Rising demand for UG in arts and science courses

CHENNAI: With the Class XII examination results expected soon, it won't be long before students queue up for applications at various arts and science colleges in the city. While the demand for such courses at the UG level has been steadily increasing over the years, the scenario at the PG departments is less encouraging.Experts and students who spoke to City Express on Monday were of the opinion that industry preferences and a stagnated curriculum have done in the postgraduate courses in arts, science and humanities where vacancies keep increasing by the year.Take the case of Anupam Kumar, for example. After completing his BCom (Accounting and Finance) from a popular college in Mylapore, he enrolled for MCom at Loyola College. Halfway through, he realised there was no value addition in the course and discontinued."The problem is, with greater specialisation at the UG level, PG courses in commerce have become obsolete. Unless you wish to go in for research or the teaching profession, you will derive nothing from it," says Anupam, who is now interning at a Big Four auditing firm.One key reason students feel this way is the preference shown by industry. Companies often put graduate and postgraduate students in arts and science colleges on the same level, offering similar packages and job profiles during campus recruitment."Last year, a few IT companies even offered lower packages to MCom than to BCom graduates. The age factor is an issue and they openly said MCom adds very little to the resume," says the Principal-in-charge of a government arts and science college.He believes that there is a flip side to the argument about employability. "People hardly think about research these days, and focus instead on finding a job right after graduation. We find this kind of thinking even among students at the school level, who hardly ever want to become scholars," he says, adding that there are only a handful of schools in the city that offer social sciences as a subject.A quick check with three private colleges in the city revealed that apart from MBA and MCA courses, which still retain some amount of popularity, there is at least 20 to 30 per cent vacancy in arts and science PG courses every year. Comparatively, there is excess demand of at least 15 per cent for the same programmes at the UG level.Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras Colonel G Thiruvasagam says languages seem to be the hardest hit in this trend. "We find it hard to fill seats in language courses. One reason is that people feel such courses do not offer a scope for lucrative jobs," he says.These experts believe that a major revamp of the PG level curriculum, along with investment to inculcate the spirit of research, are the only ways to resurrect programmes that are now languishing with minimum student strength.