Ludhiana: Journalism dept at PAU sees surge in applications
After struggling to keep the classroom not empty, the department of journalism at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has seen a turnaround as the applications to MA journalism and mass communication course have gone up to more than twice the number of seats.
The department's MA course has seven seats and starting in the late 2010s it started to see a fall in the number of students and the class strength fell to just one student last year. This year the department already has 15 applications. The turnaround for the department is part of the rise in the number of applications for courses across the Varsity.
The rise in the number of applications have been attributed to the change in immigration rules to Canada after the friction between the two countries last year which resulted in strict restrictions on Indians trying to move there.
The university has received over 6,500 applications across different courses, a significant increase compared to the figures from recent years. According to vice-chancellor, Satbir Singh Gosal, the low number of application in the last few years were due to 'overwhelming allure of foreign education, particularly in Canada.'
HoD, deparmtent of journalism, Sheetal Thapar said, 'The department is fully committed to ensure quality media training by adapting to the changing media landscape and innovation.' She highlighted that the department is also planning to upgrade its media lab into an omni man lab with a TV studio to ensure that the students can be trained properly for the industry in line with the modern requirements. 'The department is also planning to incorporate social media management and the role of artificial intelligence in media into the training,' she added.
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