Poor admissions: 458 UG course combinations scrapped at Karnataka govt colleges

Bengaluru: The department of higher education has scrapped at least 458 various undergraduate (UG) courses at the government degree colleges across the state.

Following the decreased enrollment for some of the programmes, mainly those in Arts streams, the department decided to close such courses.

As per the information available from the department of collegiate education, most of the scrapped course combinations include Political Science, Economics, Kannada Optional, Sociology and in tier 3 cities, some combinations with low demand include Computer Science.

The department was forced to make the decision considering zero enrollment for over 1,091 course combinations and single-digit admissions for 190 combinations during the academic year 2025-26.

Earlier, Higher Education Minister Dr M C Sudhakar had spoken in the Legislative Assembly about low admissions to some of the courses at the undergraduate level.

The highest number of colleges with zero and single-digit admissions are in tier 2 and 3 cities, along with rural parts.

“There are instances where enrollment dropped even at the colleges located in cities, like Bengaluru and Mysuru,” an official from the department said.

“Some colleges have zero enrollment even for course combinations, like Chemistry, Computer Science, Physics and Mathematics,” the official added.

The officials said that such not-in-demand courses will be a burden for the government in future.

Following the lack of demand for some of the subjects and the decision to close down such subjects, the department, however, has also decided to introduce skill and job-oriented courses, which include the Apprentice Embedded Degree Programme (AEDP). 

“The government has given permission to introduce 230 new courses related to BA, BSc and BSW,” the official said. 

The officials said that the demand for some courses is higher than the intake sanctioned in over 186 colleges. “Considering the demand, we have allowed those colleges to increase the intake, maximum by 100,” the official mentioned.

Around 26 government degree colleges have been permitted to introduce new Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) courses with a minimum of 30 intake, the official said.