Demand declines for traditional PG courses

HYDERABAD: Traditional post-graduate courses like MA, M.Sc and M.Com are finding fewer takers if one goes by the number of applications received by various universities for common entrance tests.Experts say many students are turning to professional courses offered by Polytechnics after Class X, to B.Tech and B.Pharm after Intermediate and either MCA or MBA after graduation as these courses offer better job opportunities.Every university has received fewer number of applications this year than what they had received last year.The Osmania Univesity Post- Graduate Common Entrance Test has 76,000 applications, 9,000 fewer than last year.Kakatiya University has received 8,000 fewer applications than last year's 40,000.The SVUPGCET (Sri Venkateswara University Post Graduate Common Entrance Test) has 2,200 applications less than the number of 24,000 last year and Andhra University has got fewer applications than last year's 27,000.The Acharya Nagarjuna University has received about 1,500 applications fewer than last year's 8,000.Krishna University, which was under ANU last year, conducted its own test this year and got about 2,000 applications.The Adikavi Nannyya University which was established in 2006 has got a mere 300 applications for its NUCET- 2012.The number of applications is less than the number of seats available at the university. Though the university had invited applications for the entrance test in all the subjects, they conducted the test only in two subjects, M.Sc in Chemistry and Petroleum Exploration, as these two courses only had got more applications than the seats available.And the remaining courses attracted fewer applications than the number of seats available.In 2007 and 2008 academic years, the OU received more than one lakh applications for its PGCET.The decline in the number of applications had begun five years ago when engineering, pharmacy and other professional institutions mushroomed all across the state.