26 Chennai colleges seek to suspend courses as BCom, science enrolments drop

CHENNAI: Many colleges which launched several commerce courses and in multiple shifts, riding the wave of popularity of BCom (bachelor in commerce), are now struggling to fill seats and drifting away to keep their head above water. With few takers, they are on course for a change.

According to the data from the University of Madras (UoM), at least 26 arts and science-affiliated colleges have sought permission to suspend various courses from 2025 due to poor or zero enrolment.

Of the 26 colleges, 13 colleges have applied to suspend BCom courses, while eight colleges want to shelve BSc mathematics courses and seven colleges have applied to suspend BA English. The remaining courses which are in the list are BSc computer science (four colleges), BA Tamil (2), BBA(1) and BSc physics (2), and BSc plant biology and plant biotechnology.

Varsity officials have attributed it to a case of mismatch in supply and demand. As there was demand for commerce undergraduate courses in the last few years, many private colleges opened second shifts in BCom programmes and new commerce related courses like BCom in corporate secretaryship, information system management, marketing management, and bank management.

“We noticed that most of the colleges which have applied for suspension of BCom courses were offering two to three varieties of undergraduate programmes in commerce while few colleges had five varieties of BCom courses in multiple shifts,” said a varsity official.

“Colleges should remember that along with quantity, quality of the programme also matters. As they have nil enrolments in the courses, it was not financially viable for them to run the courses,” said a senior faculty member of the university. The demand for basic science courses like BSc in mathematics and physics has also been declining over the past few years, raising concern among academicians.

“Now the focus of students is only on courses which will ensure jobs for them. Hence the demand of pure science courses has been on the decline. Many colleges are opting to start BSc in computer science by shutting down basic science courses,” said the principal of a college. The issue was discussed in the recent senate meeting of the university.