Admissions to foreign courses fall in BU

Bangalore University’s (BU) Department of Foreign Languages has seen a fall in the number of admissions to various courses for the academic year 2015-16.

In 2013-14, around 403 students had enrolled themselves and in 2014-15 it was 441. In 2015-16, however, the enrolment has slipped to 351. The fall in the number of students is 90 compared with the last year and 52 compared with the 2013-14 situation.

The department faculty say the fall could be due to apprehensions over trifurcation of the university. 

Students have become uncertain where they would get the degree or diploma from – Bangalore University, Bangalore Central University or Bangalore South.

 Students want the diploma from Bangalore University as it is widely recognised by different consulates.

While the number of students has dipped, German language, however, has acquired the number one status this year over French, which has been the most popular course for many years. 

Faculty say the preference for German could be because of the high number of German delegations coming to Bengaluru and Delhi and the heightened interaction between German and Bengaluru-based trade bodies.

Higher level of interaction between German and Bengaluru-based science and other academic institutions has also encouraged students to take German this year. 

As many as 105 students have enrolled for the German language course over the last three years, says senior faculty member Jyothi Venkatesh.

French comes in second and does so in the context of high interaction between French trade and science bodies and organisations, especially in Bengaluru. The preference for French has seen a drop of 32 students from 105 to 73. Students also prefer the French language course being offered by Alliance Francaise.

Eleven courses are on offer by the university, including German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Students who apply for different courses do so on the basis of job assessment.

Driven by job market If students are convinced that they are likely to get a job which requires a particular language skill, then they pick that language. For example Chinese.

 China now has a strong information technology connection with Bengaluru – with many techies flying into Shanghai, Chengdu, which is the IT hub, and Beijing.

“Given this job scenario, youngsters prefer Chinese language these days. Even if they have a working knowledge, it’s enough. We have seen an increase in the number of students taking up Chinese over the last few years,” says Sreenivas R, a teacher at a private Chinese teaching school.

Bangalore University has an MA programme in Japanese and a PhD in French. There are plans to launch MA in Spanish and German from the 2016 and 2017 academic years.