Many students opt for multidisciplinary undergraduate for 2023-2024 admissions

Kolkata: As the admission process for different universities and colleges pertaining to the 2023-24 undergraduate degree (UG) courses proceeds, principals observe more students opting for multidisciplinary courses.

According to institution heads, this trend has emerged especially after the pandemic when students are focusing on subjects which have lucrative job options. According to the principal of Scottish Church

College Madhumanjari Mandal, more students applying are taking admissions in humanities subjects than science subjects. Furthermore, there are more takers for BBA than B.Com this time.

This year, the universities are offering four-year undergraduate courses instead of three years.

Calcutta University (CU), unlike other universities, is also offering multiple exits for the students.

CU is offering exit options after the completion of the second, fourth and sixth semesters.

State universities, including Presidency University and Jadavpur University, are also offering four-year courses and have decided to give students an exit option after completing three years.

According to the official of Surendranath College, more students are applying for three-year courses than four-year courses. The official feels that not many students are having the confidence to go for four-year coursework. If proper seminars had been conducted to clear the doubts of parents and students, the applications

for four-year coursework could have been increased.

Furthermore, the official said that amongst traditional subjects, higher demand was seen for Commerce, English and Political Science.

The demand for pure science subjects has decreased significantly. Demands have also gone down for traditional subjects like economics and Sanskrit. “More students are going for multi-disciplinary courses,” the official said.

Basanti Devi College Principal Indrila Guha said that the number of applicants have gone up. Around 2990 applicants have opted for the four years undergraduate course and 1073 have opted for three years coursework. “More students are opting for B.A general courses. Students have also been applying for Honours courses in English, Education and Political Science,” Guha said.

The college has also seen an increasing demand for Economics honours which offers subject combinations of Economics, Statistics and Mathematics.