Enrolment in postgraduate courses witnesses big dip in Amritsar

Neha Saini

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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 19

Expressing concern over the falling number of enrolments in higher education, several aided colleges in the city have recently taken up the matter with the Higher Education Minister. Citing several factors, such as the pandemic, for the drop in admissions in postgraduate courses, educators say that if the trend continues, it will leave a long lasting damage on higher education in the state.

“Despite the state government’s move towards privatisation of education and mushrooming private colleges, the past five years have seen an annual drop of 10 per cent in enrolment for higher education. Owing to the pandemic, teaching has shifted to online mode and this has resulted in the present situation as many students are either not getting admission due to financial constraints and others are waiting for the offline classes to commence. Students who had plans to pursue PhD or PG diploma courses are preferring to wait for a year for the things to return back to normal,” said DAV College Principal Dr Rajesh Kumar.

The drop in enrolment in postgraduate courses is significant in some colleges. Hindu College Associate Professor Ritu Jaitly said, “We used to have average 40-50 students per class in postgraduate courses until a few years back. Now, the number has reduced to 15-20. Many students are interested in going abroad and pursue their higher education from overseas universities as they believe it offers them a chance for a better future. The uncertainty created by the pandemic has only added to the situation.”

Another factor attributed towards the student’s losing interest in pursuing higher education is the failure of the government to offer incentive to students. The historic Khalsa College too has seen a fall of up to 30 per cent in student enrolments for postgraduate and PhD this year. “The government asked colleges to waive off or exempt fee charged from students and it was complied with. Despite that the fall in enrolment remains as students are not ready to invest economically and personally to pursue higher education in India. The lure of overseas education and foreign citizenship is at all-time high as they don’t see employment opportunities here. Though, all foreign visas and travel remain suspended due to the pandemic, those nurturing foreign dreams prefer to wait. With an all-time high unemployment rate, the situation seems to worsen,” said Khalsa College Principal Dr Mehal Singh. Khalsa College has approximately 7,000 students, out of which, Dr Singh said 60 per cent prefer to fly out to pursue higher education. Since, Punjab’s economy too has been hit, with no government jobs in line and industry moving out of the state, the solution lies in introspection and action.

“The government has to consider the brain drain and our young, skilled people choosing overseas education for the lack of jobs in India. They have to offer incentives and jobs and boost corporate sector to promise better employment for our youth,” said Dr Rajesh.