Ludhiana: Journalism dept at PAU sees surge in applications

The department’s MA course has seven seats and starting in the late 2010s it started to see a fall in the number of students and the class strength fell to just one student last year

After struggling to keep the classroom not empty, the department of journalism at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has seen a turnaround as the applications to MA journalism and mass communication course have gone up to more than twice the number of seats.

This year the department already has 15 applications. (HT File)

The department’s MA course has seven seats and starting in the late 2010s it started to see a fall in the number of students and the class strength fell to just one student last year. This year the department already has 15 applications. The turnaround for the department is part of the rise in the number of applications for courses across the Varsity.

The rise in the number of applications have been attributed to the change in immigration rules to Canada after the friction between the two countries last year which resulted in strict restrictions on Indians trying to move there.

The university has received over 6,500 applications across different courses, a significant increase compared to the figures from recent years. According to vice-chancellor, Satbir Singh Gosal, the low number of application in the last few years were due to “overwhelming allure of foreign education, particularly in Canada.”