Govt-aided degree colleges struggling to fill regular UG, PG seats

LUCKNOW: Government-aided degree colleges affiliated to the University of Lucknow are struggling to fill both undergraduate and post-graduate seats in the regular category. Thus, there are few takers for self-financed seats, for which the fee is much higher. In many of these institutions only 50% students have taken admission this year.

A delayed admission process due to the lockdown adversely impacted the admission process in many degree colleges of the state capital. The centralised admission process of Lucknow University – for private colleges only – was mistakenly understood to include governmentaided colleges too. This added to the confusion, as students felt that the LU process will cater to all aided degree colleges which was not the case.

For instance, at Vidyant Hindu Degree College, against 670 BA regular seats, only some 250 students took admission this year. In B Com, against 320 seats, only 250 took admission. But no students took admission in B Com self-financed course which has 120 seats, said principal Dharam Kaur.

Similarly, at AP Sen Memorial Girls College, Charbagh, against 475 regular seats in BA, only 250 students took admission. On the 80 self-financed B Com seats, just 40 students took admission.

Likewise in MA Hindi and Sociology, of the 60 self-financed seats only 12-15 seats got filled, said principal Shivani Dubey.

The situation is no different at BSNV College, where in B Com, against 240 regular seats, some 60 seats are vacant, and in B Sc Bio and B Sc Maths, of the 350 seats each, more than 100 seats are vacant. Principal Rakesh Chandra said that the online registration process is on. He said there are no takers for the 240 B Com self-financed seats and B Sc (SF) 80 seats. Kali Charan Degree College has 500 regular seats in BA out of which 27 are vacant and in B Com self-financed 240 seats, only 130 students took admission.

At Jai Narain Post Graduate College, seats are vacant in a number of post-graduate courses. JNPG College vice principal and admission co-ordinator Arun Kumar Mishra said that hopefully seats will get filled up in a few days time. Shia PG College director (resource centre) Pradeep Sharma said that there are 60 seats each in M Com and M Com Applied Economics. This year, the College received less than 50 applications. In M Sc Zoology, the college has 30 seats but this year only 17 took admission, he said.

Shia College journalism department guest faculty member Raj Kumar Saini said the journalism course in the college has 40 seats and of these only 50% seats have been filled.