Market forces driving BU PG course selection

BANGALORE: The recently concluded counselling for PG-CET seats under Bangalore University shows how market forces are driving educational preferences for postgraduate students.Courses such as biotechnology, biochemistry and microbiology have lost out in the race against commerce and economics.Of the 807 available seats for biotechnology, only 169 seats have been occupied by eligible students.The same fate is shared by biochemistry, where out of 355 seats, only 124 seats were occupied.Microbiology was a surprise, with only 93 seats allotted for the 372 available seats.Speaking to The New Indian Express, Dr Erasi K, chairman for PG admissions, said that this was solely because of market forces.“Few years back, the market was booming with biotechnology and microbiology.Things are different now.There is a huge demand for commerce, business management and finance personnel,” he said.The PG-CET counselling took place for two weeks, from September 3 to September 17.Commerce and economics have bagged most of the seats and are likely to exceed capacity after the supernumerary quota counselling.The number of available seats for commerce and economics was 658 and 233 respectively.The number of eligible students are likely to exceed this number after the supernumerary quota.Dr Erasi states two possible reasons for the enormous turnout in commerce and economics.“There are two primary reasons.The number of teaching jobs available in these fields attracts many students towards.Secondly, getting an MBA degree is the concern of most students these days,” he said.Last year Government of Karnataka had announced 695 vacant posts for lecturers, recollected Erasi.“It is up to the management to decide what is to be done with the remaining seats,” said Erasi.Counselling for vacant supernumerary seats will be held on September 24 between 2 pm and 5 pm at the Jnana Jyothi auditorium in Central College premises.