Karnataka govt colleges turn to social media to increase enrolments

Government PU college principals in Karnataka has been directed to be creative in organising special admission drives. Information pushed through various mediums including social media and local TV channels should mention various facilities provided at the college, the scope of learning for each subject/combination, and various achievements that students and lecturers, according to the Karnataka PU board.

3 min readBangaloreMay 14, 2019 05:53 PM IST First published on: May 14, 2019 at 05:02 PM IST

Karnataka PU College enrolment social media

PU College principals are also advised to acquire data of all students who completed 10th grade from government schools in the college’s surroundings. Representational Image

In a bid to improve enrolment to government pre-university (PU) colleges in Karnataka, the Department of Pre University Education (DPUE) has instructed college principals to use social media and to take the aid of local TV channels to encourage more students to join them for the upcoming academic year.

In a notification sent to all government PU colleges, DPUE Director C. Shikha has directed college principals to be creative in organising special admission drives. “The information that is being pushed through various mediums including social media and local TV channels should mention various facilities provided at the college, the scope of learning for each subject/combination, and various achievements that students and lecturers of the college have got in the previous years,” the directive reads.

Explaining the same, Director Shikha told indianexpress.com that using social media to promote more admissions would be majorly done for colleges in urban areas. “In rural locations, the classic manner of sensitising parents and students for admissions will continue. PU college principals will be in touch with headmasters of government schools to track students who cleared SSLC this year,” she says.

PU College principals are also advised to acquire data of all students who completed 10th grade from government schools in the college’s surroundings. As many as 6,08,336 students had attained eligibility for higher education after the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board announced the SSLC results on April 30.

Also read: Karnataka 2019 SSLC toppers Srujana and Naganjali score 100%; aspire to become doctors

After data collection, teams from colleges can approach parents of those students to encourage higher education in the closest government PU college. It is also recommended that principals or senior lecturers should hold special career counselling sessions with prospective students to generate interest among students to continue education.

To oversee the performance of individual PU colleges in improving the enrolment ratio for the academic year 2019-2020, Deputy Directors of the PU board have been directed to appoint a principal from each taluk as the nodal officer.

Poor enrolment ratios in government PU colleges in Karnataka have been pointed out by several stakeholders in the past as well. Over 3.45 lakh students were added to the rolls of government PU colleges last year. At present, Karnataka is home to 5,207 PU colleges across the State, of which only 1,229 are government-run. Incidentally, the number of private PU colleges is more than double the same of government colleges – 3,199. At the same time, there are 779 government-aided PU colleges in the state.

With the SSLC results seeing a nominal increase this time, DPUE officials expect a hike of at least 10% from that of the previous academic year in admissions to government PU colleges in Karnataka for the academic year 2019-2020.