Call it the effect of being ranked the top institute in the country in the Times Higher Education ranking 2013-14 or just a general trend seen in most educational institutions: the number of aspirants for Panjab University’s 40-odd post graduate courses has gone up by a whopping 22% this year.
Call it the effect of being ranked the top institute in the country in the Times Higher Education ranking 2013-14 or just a general trend seen in most educational institutions: the number of aspirants for Panjab University’s 40-odd post graduate courses has gone up by a whopping 22% this year.
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More interesting, however, is the increase seen applications for pure sciences: the number has gone up by 50% to 70%, with 15, 280 applicants for the 1,900 seats in the 38 courses offered by the varsity. Last year, this figure stood at 12, 482.
Chemistry saw the highest number of applicants at 2,411 followed by Physics 2,168 and MCA at 1,616 and Mathematics at 1,343. In Physics for every seat, 11 candidates would be competing, while in the case of chemistry for every seat there would be nine students in fray.
“It is a phenomenal increase. Rankings have helped in popularity of the university. But the increase in number of applicants in the basic sciences shows that Panjab University is being seen as research promotion destination. We fared well in rankings because of citations of research papers in basic sciences,” controller of examinations, Parvinder Singh said.
In October last year, the Panjab University was declared as the number one university in the country by Times Higher Education Ranking, an international reputed agency.
The researches by students and teachers in Physics and chemistry contributed a lot in the ranking.
Dean Sciences, Rupinder Tiwari said that research was a major factor. “But other factors like job surety in pure sciences have also played a role. The applied sciences job market is not doing very well, that is the another reason behind it,” said Tiwari.
The courses where number of applicants had gone down are M Tech (Instrumentation) from 116 last year to 108 this year and major change is in ME computer science and engineering and IT in which only 336 candidates have applied as against 832 last year.
The business courses like M Com (hons) and M Com (business), have got marginally few more takers.
For M Com (hons) as 763 have applied as against 557 applicants recorded last year. In the case of M Com (business innovation) 298 candidates have applied against 166 last year.