Students are nolonger attracted towards some of the courses offered by Kashmir University atthe post-graduate level. Be it Hindi department or Sanskrit department, thevarsity has been seeing lesser and lesser students competing to grab a seat inthese fields.
Every year theKU receives over thousands of applications from students seeking admission invarious courses. But both the departments have been getting response in singledigits from the students. As per admission details, around 40,000 applicationswere received by the varsity in 2018 for admissions for different courses. Butnot a single candidate had applied for Sanskrit at PG level. The department hasan intake capacity of 20 students but all the seats have remained vacant forthe past many years.
Today the department has three permanent faculty members but not a single student. “It is obvious when there are no students in the department, the faculty members pass the time in leisure, but they are not to be blamed,” said an official who wished not to be named.
“It is the lone department in the varsity where no time table has been framed from past many years,” he said. Besides, the Hindi department also got lukewarm response from the students this year and as a result most of the seats in the department are lying vacant.
During 2018, ofthe intake capacity of 78 students only seven opted for the subject. “Actually,students opt for different subjects at entrance level. Hindi remains the lastchoice for students,” the official said. The Hindi department also offers PGdiploma but no student is enrolled for the course this year. During 2017, onlysix seats against available 78 were filled.
The poorresponse of the students has become a cause of worry for the varsityadministration as Human resource available in these departments is not being properlyused. The heads of the Hindi and Sanskrit department put the ball in thegovernment’s court saying that the subjects get poor response at Universitylevel as these two subjects are not taught at college and school level inKashmir.
“Hindi subject has not been introduced in colleges and higher secondary level in Kashmir due to which students don’t apply for PG course. If the subject is introduced at lower level, then it will automatically have an impact at the PG level too,” said Prof Zahida, head of the Hindi department. Coordinator Sanskrit department, Prof Mehraj Ud Din attributed the same reasons for poor response of students.
“We have no student in PG classes but eight scholars are enrolled for P.hD course,” he said. He said the department receives application for Sanskrit from students of Jammu division only.
“But later they don’t prefer to join the varsity after their selection in Jammu University,” he said. An official in higher education department acknowledged that Hindi and Sanskrit were not offered in colleges in Kashmir. “Hindi is taught in only three colleges in Kashmir while as Sanskrit has not been introduced in any colleges,” the official said.
The poorresponse of students has become a cause of worry for the universityadministration as well. “It is a genuine problem as we have establishedfull-fledged department for Sanskrit and Hindi but students don’t opt for thesubjects.
The universityhas taken a note of the issue,” said director admission KU, Prof IrshadNawchoo. Another official said the vice-chancellor was also serious about theissue and wants these two departments flourish.
During 2018Zoology department had received highest number of 2589 application against 57available seats, followed by sociology with 1879 applications against 65 seatsand 1860 applications were received by mathematics department against an intakecapacity of 70 students.