Rush at PU colleges for admission, cut-off increased

Mangaluru: The private PU colleges in the city are witnessing a huge rush of students for admissions, a day after SSLC results were announced. According to colleges, this year there are students from Kodagu,Hassan and Kerala, who have come for admissions, while the response was poor or nil, during the last two years, due to the pandemic. The courses most in demand are science and commerce. Computer science is the most preferred combination, say colleges. Meanwhile, due to students scoring good marks in this examination, colleges have increased the cut-off by about 5% to 10%. Some colleges added that they had serpentine queues for admission, soon after results were declared on Thursday.
Fr Clifford Sequeira, principal, St Aloysius PU College, says that the number of students seeking admission has returned to the level, of the days before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Students are coming for admissions from Madikeri, Hassan and other districts, and also from Kerala, which was not the case for the past two years. They are also demanding hostel facilities.
The demand for courses has changed this year. Many candidates, both from the commerce and science streams, want computer science as the combination subject. The other course combinations in demand are PCMB, PCMC and CSBA.
St Aloysius PU College, which will admit a large number of students, increased the cut-off for admission. It is because of the good results. Fr Clifford said that for computer science combination, the cut-off has been increased from 80% to 90%. There was a 5%increase in cut-off for PCMB, and candidates require 85% marks, whereas the CSBA combination has seen an increase in cut off by 10% , and in other course combinations, there has been a 5% increase in cut -off.
The increased demand for computer science subjects is a latest trend in PU education, says Mahabaleshwar S Bhat, principal of Sharada PU College. He said that those who had opted for computer science had gone down from the past five to six years. However, the subject has seen an increase in demand, since the pandemic. Students pointed out that those who graduated by taking computer-related courses, were able to save their jobs during the pandemic. There is also a work-from-home option, if one takes computer science courses, they said.
Provisional admissions
Some of the private PU colleges stated that many candidates had taken provisional admission, by providing preparatory exam marks. “What we noticed is that a majority of the candidates have scored more marks in the board examination. In preparatory examinations, candidates scored about 60%, but have scored 80% in the actual exam. Either there was liberal correction done, or the exam papers were set easy,” stated the head of a PU college.