CAP fails to draw more students to humanities

NAGPUR: The Nagpur University’s (NU) first online centralized admission process (CAP) for its postgraduate courses, which are not part of CAP conducted by the State cell, didn’t make any difference for humanities that has again received poor response. On the other hand, the MSc courses were nearly twice oversubscribed with 3,764 applying for just 1,966 seats available at NU postgraduate departments and affiliated colleges.

The application deadline, extended following inclement weather last week, came to an end on Tuesday.

Pro-vice chancellor Pramod Yeole said 3,704 applications were registered against 12,950 intake in MA courses. “It is common scenario for humanities and students know they would easily get admissions. The vacant seats for MA will be filled through spot admissions,” he said.

In Interdisciplinary faculty, Yeole said Master of Social Work (MSS) was a surprise element as 1,461 applied for 965 seats.

There were few takers for other courses like Master of Computer Management (MCM), Master of Industrial Relation and Personnel Management (MIRPM), Master of Library & Information Science (MLib), Master of Fashion Design and MA (Home Science). Applications for these courses too were placed under the second and third phases of CAP.

In the first phase, applications for MCom, MCom (Professional), MSC (Forensic Sciences), MFA, Master of Cosmetic Technology, and Master of Hospitality Management were held. These courses had received good number of applications and CAP II has been completed for them.

Last year too, the humanities group had got a similar response when the NU had introduced the CAP pilot only for its PG department on the campus. For 1,150 seats, only 400 applications were received of which 375 finally had taken admissions. But, the NU didn’t expect the finally tally to go beyond 800 admissions.

But, CAP had proved a game changer for its 13 postgraduate courses in science group. Except 7 seats of Genetic Engineering, all the 419 were filled last year. Before CAP, the science seats used to remain vacant.

One of the reasons MSc courses’ high demand was the low fee charged by NU PG departments. But, the fee at NU and MA aided courses offered by affiliated colleges is more or less same.