LU aided colleges: Several reasons, one big problem: Where are the students?
In most colleges, over 20-30% of the total number of seats were left vacant in the academic session 2023-24
About a decade back, aided colleges which used to bustle with students are now waiting to sell even the equivalent number of forms as the regular seats on some courses. With changes in the education scenario and setting up of various private colleges and universities, these aided colleges, despite having good human resources, are faced with the problem of fewer admissions.
In most colleges, over 20-30% of the total number of seats were left vacant in the academic session 2023-24, shared an office-bearer of Lucknow University Associated Colleges Association (LUACTA).
Sharing the data, the office-bearer said that of the total 1,075 regular seats in BA at Karamat Husain Muslim Girls PG College, only 500 could be filled, while at Vidyant Hindu PG College of the total 670 seats, 270 seats in BA were filled while 220 seats of the total 320 seats were filled in B.Com regular programme.
Only 40 seats of the total 500 BA regular seats in Shashi Bhushan Balika Vidhyalaya could be filled.
Principal of AP Sen Girls Degree College, Rachana Srivastava, said that about 20% of the 475 BA and 80 B Com seats could not be filled by the college. “The mushrooming of self-finance colleges and their leniency with academic affairs like classes and assignments have led to problems for aided colleges.
Citing issues that are collectively affecting admissions, Bappa Shri Narain Vocational College principal, Sanjay Mishra, said that the self-finance colleges are indeed a major contributor to the problem, the expansion of the Lucknow University’s jurisdiction to four more districts is also a problem.
“Apart from Lucknow – the expansion of LU’s jurisdiction to Hardoi, Sitapur, Rae Bareli and Lakhimpur has reduced the number of students from surrounding districts coming to the city to seek admission. Besides, several students end up getting fascinated by the infrastructure at the private colleges but they neglect the human resources in terms of quality teachers available at aided colleges which is also one of the reasons,” said Mishra quoting that about 20% seats in BA and BSc courses remained vacant at BSNV last academic year.
At Khun Khunji Girls’ College, 225 of the total 385 seats were filled for BA while 25 of the 60 seats were filled for B.Com courses, shared principal Anshu Kedia.
Until 2000, there were only 19 aided colleges in the city. The number of associated colleges of Lucknow University have swelled to 556 including 182 in the state capital.
Manoj Pandey, LUACTA president said that there are certain reasons behind the problem. “When Lucknow University holds counselling sessions, they also focus on filling their self-finance seats instead of sending students to aided colleges where they can study at a lower cost by becoming part of a regular programme. Besides, professional courses like LLB, BBA and BAJMC are preferred like hot cake over the traditional B Sc, BA and BCom. The centralised admission system of the university has also added to the misery of these aided colleges as, as soon as the LURN ID is created by a student the LU admission form pops up. In many cases students thinking that that is the only form required even for getting admission in any associated college, end up failing to fill forms of colleges separately,” said Pandey.
LU spokesperson Prof Durgesh Srivastava said, “LURN and expansion of LU’s jurisdiction in four more districts is not an issue. Students from pan India and abroad seeking quality education continue to get admission at LU. The university is also among the top preferences for international students in the state. According to ICCR data, LU has the largest number of foreign students in UP universities.”