Bhubaneswar, July 15: Students are not showing interest in pursuing graduation in general streams, science, in particular following which thousands of seats are lying vacant for the last two academic years.
So far, around 1.5 lakh seats are vacant after second phase admission to graduation courses and it’s expected that around 1 lakh seats will remain vacant after completion of the admission process.
According to Student Academic Management System (SAMS) data, as many as 2,34,719 students had applied for +3 courses and the seat strength for this academic session is 2,74,151 and 2,33,452 applicants had deposited online fee. The application number was around 40,000 less that the seat strength.
The first merit list was published on June 25 and 1,78,976 students were shortlisted. The admission process was conducted from June 26 to 29 and 92,000 students took admission in the first phase.
The second list was published on July 5 and 43,261 students were shortlisted. Around 28,500 students got enrolled during the admission process from July 6 to 9.
So far, a total of 1,20,887 students have taken admission and 1,53,264 seats have remained vacant.
As many as 79,814 students have taken admission in Arts stream by second phase against the seat strength of 1,54,828. In science stream, only 24,950 seats have been filled when the strength is 73,299. Similarly, only 11,732 enrolments have been registered in commerce stream against the strength of 31, 964.
The demand for professional courses is high which is why students are moving away towards such courses which are not available in the general colleges. Besides, the number of students who are appearing for engineering and medical examinations are not taking admission in + 3 courses, said educationalist Dr Soubhagya Swain.
The higher education department should focus on introducing professional courses that are job oriented and skill based, he added.
