University College, more than 100-year-old constituent college of Mangalore University, will not have the Bachelor of Arts (Human Resource Development) course from the academic year 2014-15.
The students of the last batch of the three-year course are writing their the final examinations.
Introduced as a promising specialised course in 2009-10, the college stopped admission to the course from 2012-13 due to dearth of students.
Principal Sathyanarayana Mallipatna told The Hindu that the course had 44 seats — 22 merit seats and an equal number of payment category seats. But the intake did not cross 15 ever since the course was introduced.
Mr. Mallipatna said that nine students applied for the course in 2012-13. As it was found not feasible to continue with the course and since the students agreed to join other courses, the admission for the course was stopped.
He said that of the 15 students admitted in 2011-12, two students quit in the first year. They will graduate now.
One of the reasons for students not joining the specialised course could be the high fee (almost double) compared to the fee for other conventional degree courses. According to sources in the university, some other colleges under the university continued to offer the same course. But teachers in those colleges said that the demand for the course was declining on the lines of declining demand for Bachelor of Business Management course.
One of the reasons for students hesitating to opt for HRD course at the undergraduate level could be stiff competition in the employment market from postgraduates from specialised branches like MBA, MSW and M.Com. who also specialised in HR.
