Rashmi Belur By

BENGALURU: Bangalore University is running some Post Graduate (PG) courses with very few students, much lesser than the minimum number of admissions needed for a course to be run.

As per the data available with Express, some of the PG courses being offered at the University’s Jnana Bharathi and Central College campuses have less than 10 students. However, the minimum student strength required to run a PG course is 15.

A senior official of the university told Express, “We have to run the courses even if we have less than the minimum admissions considering the students who will get admission in the next year. In case we close the course and if demand increases for that particular course, we have to go through a long process to re-start the course.”

According to officials, as the faculties of these PG courses with few students are university employees, they cannot be sent on deputation to other universities. “In case of primary education department, there are instances where they use teachers for office work or redeploy them where there is a need. But when it comes to higher education, that will not be possible. We cannot send them to any other university,” said an official.

When contacted Vice-Chancellor Dr B Thimme Gowda said, “There is a government order which directs us not to close down language courses/departments even if the number of students is not more than five.”

However, the VC said the university will wait for three years and if the condition of the course continues to be the same, then it will be wrapped up. “Molecular Biology had no admissions during the 2015-16 academic year and this year we got three or four students. We have not admitted them,” added Gowda. There are over 49 PG departments at Bangalore University. While some courses have huge demand, there are some that have very few seekers. “Though there are job opportunities for subjects like Applied Geology, somehow the course is not getting popularised,” said Gowda.