Commerce courses a hit in Panchkula colleges

Similarly,in Government College for Girls,Sector 14,of the 120 seats in the commerce stream,only five under the SC quota are lying vacant.

While the crowd in these colleges mainly comes from rural areas like Barwala,Raipurrani,Ramgarh,Chandimandir and villages near Pinjore and even Baddi,principals say the students are well aware and clear about their academic choices. “Though they hail from villages,they are as aware as their urban counterparts. Students feel that commerce can offer them a lot of career opportunities like management and chartered accountancy. Students no longer want to pursue humanities,” said Professor R C Goyal,principal,GC-1.

A similar trend was observed last year too. Keeping in view the popularity of BCom,GCG-14 has decided to increase the number of seats by 40.

According to the principal,the matter is already underway. “We received around 250 applications for the 120 seats in BCom this time. As it is very popular,we hope to add 40 seats from the next session,” said principal Professor R S Sangha.

Another popular course among students is BCA. In both these Panchkula colleges,of the 40 seats,30 have already been filled. While the colleges are not ready with the final cut-off list as admissions are still open with late fee,they claim that students who have sought admission in BCom have a minimum score of 60 per cent.

Humanities and science courses,meanwhile,have few takers and seats are lying vacant. At GC-1,around 80 and over 100 seats at GCG-14,of the total 400,are vacant. Similarly,of the 166 seats in the science stream (medical and non-medical) at GC-1,around 120 have been filled.

Colleges,however,rue that many students prefer colleges in Chandigarh because of which they lose out on meritorious candidates. “It is a disadvantage as most urban students who score well move to Chandigarh which has become a norm of sorts,” added Goyal.