Andhra Pradesh - Guntur   

Journalism losing its sheen?

GUNTUR: Master of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication being offered by Acharya Nagarjuna University and Krishna University has lost its sheen going by the number of students opting to join the course.

Interestingly, the Machilipatnam-based Krishna University, which was formed recently, was allowed to recruit seven faculty members in the Department of JMC, but there were no takers for the course there.

In contrast, Acharya Nagarjuna University managed to attract 26 students out of 72 who qualified in the ANUCET-2009.

One of the reasons attributed was salary cuts and removal of staff several media houses resorted to recently following economic slowdown.

The ANU, however, does not have any permanent faculty member, and after running the department successfully for five years, the government and the University Grants Commission sanctioned only one lecturer post compared to one professor, two assistant professors and four lecturers to Krishna University.

Last year, 40 students joined the course though only 20 had come from the ANUCET. The lone lecturer to be recruited would be required to handle 70 students in both years with the help of guest lecturers from other departments.

The ANU department has the distinction of placing a large number of its students in all media houses in Andhra Pradesh. But department has not been sanctioned faculty positions to provide quality education and also attract meritorious students to the course.

Meanwhile, Pharmaceutical Chemistry in Krishna University was an instant hit with all the 30 seats getting filled, but there were not takers for its M.Sc. Electronics and Instrumentation with only 4 seats getting filled out of 30.

The counselling for Telugu and English was yet to be conducted.

In ANU M.Sc. Chemistry there were 211 seats out of 1848 and 563 out of 735 in M.Sc. Physics. The Arts courses also had very few takers on the ANU campus.

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