Truth behind the hype

Updated on: Wednesday, October 13, 2010

About 75 per cent of the total seats in postgraduate programmes in various life science courses, including the much-hyped Biotechnology, offered in colleges affiliated to Bangalore University have found no takers this year.

The statistics of admission details for the academic year 2010-11 show that there were 905 seats in 36 colleges in Biotechnology, and only 254 seats (about 28 per cent) were filled up. Many colleges have not got even a single student for the course.

Similarly, there were 151 seats in M.Sc. (Applied Genetics) offered by 10 colleges and only 33 seats (21.8 per cent) were filled up this year.

The admission to Biochemistry and Microbiology courses is about half the total intake. Both these courses are offered by 21 colleges with a total of 804 seats, of which only 367 have been filled up. Only five students took the Molecular Biology course out of the total 22 seats.

Continuous decline

The statistics show continuous decline in the demand for admission to these courses every year. However, the response to the PG courses in Botany and Zoology is encouraging as about 75 per cent of the seats have been filled up.

Laboratories with inadequate facilities to give practical exposure to the students, request for enhancement of intake by the colleges when there was good response for the Biotechnology course, and offering of Biotechnology course by some engineering colleges are, according to academicians, the reasons for vacant seats in these courses, particularly in Biotechnology.

Bangalore University Registrar R.M. Ranganath pointed out that these courses demand laboratories of very high standards, requiring huge investment.

“Biotechnology is still in an evolving stage in the country unlike in some Western countries and a lot of investment is required in the field to ensure that the students get adequate exposure and are ready-to-meet the market requirement,” Prof. Ranganath pointed out.

No comparison

He also felt that the colleges had sought enhancement in the intake presuming that there would be huge demand like the courses in Information Technology but study of Biotechnology will not provide an immediate job like the IT industry and Biotechnology is yet to evolve as an industry in the country.

Manjunath K., Professor, Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Bangalore University, said that the demand for Biotechnology jobs was hyped in the media when the sector gained popularity in the country.

“It is a cutting-edge technology requiring research skills and enormous practical exposure. The quality of the students of Biotechnology in India is not very good as they lack practical training,” pointed out Prof. Manjunath while adding that Biotechnology courses have not yet acquired job potential.

Not up to the mark

According to a lecturer in a private college, the quality of many teachers in the majority of the colleges offering Biotechnology is not sufficient to offer skill-oriented training.

“The university should have limited the number of colleges offering Biotechnology courses. Many colleges have no proper laboratories and no full-time teachers.”

‘Unofficial arrangement'

Meanwhile, some colleges that have got only one or two students for the course are trying to send the students to colleges with fairly good intake, through an “unofficial arrangement,” the lecturer pointed out.

Such students attend theory and practical classes in other colleges and write the exams in the college where they were allotted the seat by the University.

In fact, a few colleges approached the University seeking permission to close some of these courses after the seat matrix for centralised counselling was finalised.

However, the University had declined to entertain their plea as it would have lead to many complications, including legal issues.

Truth behind the hype

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