Economics big draw among college freshers this year

With 1.4 lakh students uploading their certificates, more than 30 per cent of candidates sought BA Economics courses. The next most preferred course for the students, who sought admissions in the State-run colleges were BA English Literature and Psychology courses.

At present, a total of 109 government Arts and Science colleges were functioning across the State with an intake capacity of about 95,000 seats for the students seeking admissions to various courses.

A senior official from the Directorate of Collegiate Education, which monitors all the Government Arts and Science Institutions said that this year after releasing the merit list, admissions began on a brisk note from August 28.

“The total number of valid applications, which is about 15 per cent higher compared to previous year’s enrolment”, he said adding accordingly, the government had sanctioned to increase the intake capacity by 20 per cent across all the colleges. “With the increase of the intake capacity, maximum of about 20,000 additional students could be accommodated”, the official pointed out.

Stating that for the first-time online admissions were introduced to ensure the safety of the students amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the official said this year, students seeking BA economic courses were higher compared to the previous year. “Of the total application around 30 per cent of the students applied for economic courses in various colleges,” he added.

Pointing out that even though B. Com is also one among the preferred courses for the students every year, he said “interestingly, students seeking BA English and BA Psychology courses have increased by about 10% compared to last year”.

Claiming that apart from BA Economics, which is most preferred in the Arts wing, Physics and Mathematics also popular among the students, he said “of the total applications, these two courses accounts to about 10 per cent each”.

He said of the 109 government Arts and Science Colleges, more than 50 colleges especially in the cities including Chennai, have received applications, which was double the intake capacity.

On the demand for the Economics courses, S Ramkumar, an Economics professor in a government college in the city, said the usual trend is that when it comes to financing and commerce courses, many students might have opted for B. Com, ignoring BA Economics.

“However, over the few years, BA Economics has been gaining more and more popularity among commerce and banking aspirants”, he said adding “besides several options the economic graduates have they also get a good pay package in many financial institutions compared to B. Com students”.