With one more government college discontinuing the Journalism and Mass Communication course at the undergraduate level, the stream is now increasingly out of bounds for most rural students.
The BA course offered by Vivekananda Government Degree College in Vidyanagar has not been included in this year’s online admission, thus denying a chance for rural students, who can’t afford such courses in private colleges, to pursue the mass communication stream. The Women’s College in Begumpet and Vivekananda Degree College were the only two government colleges offering the course in the twin cities.
Faculty members said the enrolment for the course ever since it started 9 years ago has been encouraging and the graduates who completed the course have been absorbed by various newspapers and news channels, apart from private organisations. Moreover, such students have also gone on to complete PG courses in Mass Communication from various universities.
Students wishing to pursue the course say they cannot afford the multi-thousand rupee fees collected by private institutions. The government should immediately withdraw its decision to discontinue the course. The course offered a high chance employment chances and is highly beneficial to rural students, said J. Krishna Kumar, faculty member.
“We have also submitted representations to the Commissioner Collegiate Education and the Telangana State Council for Higher Education Chairman and we hope to get a positive response from them,” he said, suggesting the course should be taught in English medium to generate higher demand.
