The charm of the once much-sought-after Master of Computer Applications (MCA) degree course has waned in Tamil Nadu, more so this year.
There are no takers for 8,172 out of the 12,652 seats that were available under the Government Quota for which the single window counselling had concluded at the Government College of Technology, Coimbatore on Monday. This has given rise to fears that some private arts and science colleges might wind up the course from the next academic year.
In fact, this year only 6,109 candidates had applied for the counselling of which only 4,480 eventually decided to join the course.
“One of the reasons why fewer aspirants applied for the MCA course this year could be the All India Council for Technical Education’s mandate that only students who had studied Mathematics at the higher secondary schooling level were eligible to enroll for the course,” says P R Muthusamy, president, Association of Principals of Colleges of Bharathiar University. “Generally the sanctioned students’ intake in these courses is higher than the demand for the course. A section of the students opt for M Sc Computer Science and M Sc Information Technology programmes as a substitute for MCA,” he adds.
The other factor contributing to this huge vacancy was that the Information Technology companies these days recruited BSc Computer Science and IT graduates for a lesser salary as part of a cost-cutting exercise. “Many students prefer to work immediately after their graduation instead of studying MCA. Even in reputable institutions the MCA programme fails to attract students. Some colleges are about to wind up the course,” Muthusamy says.
M Jayakumar, Director of Department of Extension and Career Guidance at Bharathiar University, points out that the placement opportunities for MCA qualified persons are dwindling for the past four years.
“The rural colleges are suffering more. Major IT companies are now concentrating on IT Enabled Services (ITES), including banking, insurance, health care and retail market. When the economy is in boom, all production companies spend money to buy new software and hardware. When it is dull, they spend money only for maintenance of existing software. MCA graduates fit into development side, than back end support side,” he explains. “As an alternative MCA graduates should get into non conventional avenues like gaming, e-publishing, e-tutoring, animation, entertainment industry and explore opportunities in creative industries where opportunities are increasing,” he suggests.
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