A lone student in an otherwise empty classroom is not an ideal scenario for either the student or the college. But this is what some colleges, especially those offering MTech. courses are faced with, forcing them to knock on the doors of the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) to re-allot these seats.
KEA officials said they have been getting such requests for the last couple of years with college managements complaining that it unsustainable to run courses for a single student. In some cases, students themselves volunteer to be re-assigned to another college, as they find it difficult to be the only student in an otherwise empty classroom day after day. The KEA has been receiving at least five such requests each year.
“When we get such requests, we take the category the student belongs to (scheduled caste/tribe, other backward castes, general merit, etc) and the cut-off in a particular college where there are vacant seats. We show them the colleges available and make a direct allotment of the seats offline,” KEA Administrative Officer S.N. Gangadharaiah explained.
A minimum of 10 students would be ideal to run a course, said H. Maheshappa, Vice-Chancellor, Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU). However, he admitted that demand for MTech courses are on the decline. In fact, this year, Local Inquiry Committees of the varsity had recommended zero intake for 10 MTech courses in seven colleges.
“Earlier, demand picked up as a lot of BE graduates took up MTech courses to get into teaching. But with no immediate job opportunities available with the number of teaching posts reaching saturation point, demand has dipped,” Prof. Maheshappa said.
