Faculty members express concern over poor admission in over 50% of courses at Periyar University

The teaching staff of Periyar University has expressed concern over the poor intake in over 50% of the courses offered by the institution. The university is conducting admissions on the verandah to complete the authorised strength.

Periyar University has 118 affiliated colleges in Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and Namakkal districts. The university offers 27 courses at the postgraduate level and the number of students allowed for the courses is 30 to 36. While usually all seats are filled in most of the courses, the scenario is different this year. For the first time, the university is conducting veranda admissions. While such admissions had been conducted for a few departmental-level courses earlier, this time, the university is conducting veranda admissions for 18 postgraduate courses on Friday (July 19).

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Faculty members said the college had secured 59th rank in the State University category in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings for 2023, besides an A++ rating from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). This year, students did not show interest in joining many of the courses offered by the college. The sanctioned strength could not be filled in 18 of the 27 postgraduate courses, including those offered by the Tamil department, which usually has stiff competition for the MA course in Tamil. Only about 50% of the college’s seats were filled this year.

Places in science courses such as physics, chemistry and mathematics were filled, but there were also fewer applications for these courses than in the past.

The arrest of Vice-Chancellor R. Jagannathan and various corruption allegations were the main reasons for the decline in admissions. Well-trained faculty members are needed to improve the university’s reputation and change public perception, faculty members added.

University officials attributed the decline in admissions to the students’ mindset that private colleges were better than the university. Conducting verandah admissions would give a chance to students who were poor, they added.

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