Even as more students aspire to study engineering, the craze for B.Com and B.Sc. (Mathematics) still continues. Arts and science college administrators say the number of aspirants for these courses doubled this year.
Prof S. Narasimhan, principal of D.G. Vaishnav college, Arumbakkam, said the college started to issue application forms for all courses on Friday and could see a serpentine queue in front of the college office.
“Last year, on the opening day, we issued 1,600 application forms, but, this year, the number shot up to 3,000 for day college and 3,000 for evening college. It’s surprising to us as we did not expect this long a queue,” he said.
Prof Narasimhan pointed out that 60 per cent of the students who bought application forms aspired to join B.Com and B.A. (Economics), besides several other students took application forms for B.Sc. (Mathematics) course.
“Students have also shown keen interest in joining B. Com (Honours), which is run with industry collaboration,” he added.
Prof C. Pichandy, head of the communication department at PSG college of arts and science and general secretary of the Association of University Teachers (AUT), said they expect 10 per cent more students to join arts and science colleges this year.
“Technical education has become more expensive which may also be one of the reasons for the students’ shift,” he said. M. Satish, a class 12 student, standing in the long queue to buy an application form in a city arts and science college, said as many IT and ITES companies recruit students from arts and science colleges, he aspired to join B.Sc. (Computer Science).