Enrolment in traditional courses dips in 2020-21, more takers for law & tech: Study

In comparison to enrolment figures in 2019-20, the humanities faculty took the worst hit in 2020-21 with only 1.68 lakh students seeking admission in 2020-21—a 33.1% dip.

Mumbai: Enrolment in all traditional courses dropped across the state, as per a recent report by the Bombay University and College Teachers’ Union (BUCTU). Courses like law and technology, however, managed to attract more students, despite the pandemic.

(HT ARCHIVES)

In comparison to enrolment figures in 2019-20, the humanities faculty took the worst hit in 2020-21 with only 1.68 lakh students seeking admission in 2020-21 down from 2.51 lakh in 2019-20—a 33.1% dip.

In the science faculty, admissions in 2020-21 stood at 1.78 lakh (a dip of 5.1%) in UG courses compared to 1.87 lakh in the previous year. Surprisingly, the commerce faculty too witnessed a dip in enrollment post-pandemic—from 2.91 lakh in 2019-20 to 2.58 lakh in 2020-21.

“Migration was the biggest reason for the dip in enrolment across schools, colleges and universities in 2020-21,” said Tapati Mukhopadhyay, president of Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisation (MFUCTO), who jointly authored the report.

“Popular courses in the commerce faculty witnessed a dip in applications and admissions in 2020-21, and even in 2021-22, the enrolment figures have not gone back to pre-pandemic figures,” she added.

The authors received enrolment data from various government sources, including the admission figures shared by state universities as well as the data revealed in the Economic Survey of Maharashtra.

As per the report, enrollment in the humanities and science faculties rose in Mumbai city and suburbs—except for a 3.07% decline for commerce in Mumbai suburbs, most other districts under MU witnessed a negative growth after the pandemic.

Enrolment in the humanities faculty at Savitribai Phule Pune University witnessed a decline of 13.38% whereas the overall decline in enrolment in Nagpur and Solapur Universities stood at 16.03% and 17.9%, respectively. SNDT Women’s University witnessed a decline in enrolment across faculties—40.2% dip in humanities, 22.3% in commerce faculty and 27.11% in science faculty in 2020-21.

“Other than migration, employability has been a major reason for the dip in the commerce faculty, especially outside Mumbai city and suburbs. Students consider the job market before opting for an undergraduate or postgraduate degree and the pandemic hit the job market first, automatically resulting in falling demand for the traditional courses,” said Madhu Nair, former dean of the commerce faculty, University of Mumbai, and a member of the Academic Council (AC).

He added that for years, the commerce and science faculties have attracted maximum applications from cities whereas humanities has witnessed high applications from tier two and three cities.

“Even basic knowledge in accounting and finance will land someone a job in a city like Mumbai, but that’s not the case in rural Maharashtra. The overall dip in commerce faculty has to be more in other universities, and not specifically in MU,” added Nair.

In the last few years, the law faculty has managed to increase its intake capacity and at the same time, attracted a higher number of applications as well. In 2020-21, the enrolment in the law faculty went up by 50.7% in UG. The PG course, however, witnessed a decline of 31.5%.

“Majorly, PG courses took the biggest hit across courses, hinting at how no one wanted to invest in higher education during or after the pandemic. These figures improved in 2021-22, but the numbers are still not as good as pre-pandemic figures,” said Madhu Paranjape, general secretary of Bombay University and College Teachers’ Union (BUCTU), and co-author of the study.