Bhopal: Few takers for Urdu course in varsities

PG courses at varsities fail to attract students , Four enroll for PG language prog in BU, 50 % seats vacant in varsities 

BHOPAL : Urdu as a subject has failed to attract students in universities in the state capital which has Muslim population of around 52 lakhs.

More than half of the seats in MA (Urdu) study programmes vacant in Barkatullah University, while MP Bhoj (open) University had to discontinue its MA in Urdu language course due to zero application for the academic session 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Post-graduate course in Urdu in BU has failed to catch fancy of students as only four got themselves enrolled for it. The Urdu department has 20 seats for this programme. Besides, around 50 per cent of the seats are lying vacant in different PG courses in the university.

Expressing concern Maulana Yousuf Nadwai said that the quality of education in the varsities of the city and state has fallen in the last few decades. “The students too are shifting towards professional courses keeping in mind their future. However, the central universities in the country and varsities in other states have a large number of students studying in department of Urdu,” he added.

In 41 PG programmes running in 25 departments of Barkatullah University, only 508 students have taken admission against 1008 seats for the academic session of 2017-18.

Also, in the nine diplomas and certificate courses around 25 per cent seats are lying vacant on 305 allotted seats only 232 students have taken admissions. Department of University Institute of Technology running three post graduate courses, and Chakravarti Rajgopalachari Institute of Management operating one postgraduate programme, have failed to find any student in the present academic session.

Moreover, department of pharmacy has only one student in MPharma pharmaceuticals course, similarly one student has enrolled for MSC geoinformatics in department of earth sciences.

Mohammad Irfan, who has completed his post-graduation from MCNUJC and graduation from Allahabad University(a central University in Uttar Pradesh), talking to Free Press  said that the quality of the education in varsities in state capital is not up-to the mark. “In Allahabad University there is a fight to get admission in language courses. But here in Madhya Pradesh the trend is totally different,” said Irfan.

Registrar of the BU, Professor UN Shukla did not respond to phone call.