3 days ago
Course preferences shift among students in southern districts
Keeping up with the recent trends, colleges in southern districts of Tamil Nadu are witnessing noticeable shifts in student preferences, particularly towards artificial intelligence, data science and audiology and speech language pathology. These courses have gained significant popularity across most regions of the districts.
To ensure inclusivity, district administrations are taking active steps to support students from last mile communities and cognitively unexposed population. Initiatives such as career guidance programmes are being organised to boost student enrolment ratio in higher education.
Since the announcement of higher secondary public examination results, students and their parents have been deeply engrossed in the college admission process.
Anish, a student from Nagercoil, who has applied for engineering counselling, says he aspires to pursue aeronautical engineering at one of the top colleges where he hopes to secure admission through the counselling process.
Commenting on Anish's aspirations, his mother says she is willing to allow her son to study outside of the district. However, she hopes for good options within Kanniyakumari district for his preferred course.
An administrative staff member from St. Xavier's Engineering College in Nagercoil says courses in computer science, electronics and communication engineering have regained momentum after a brief lull, as evident from the number of student enquiries. While interest in artificial intelligence and cyber security courses remains steady, traditional core branches such as mechanical, civil and electrical engineering have seen relatively fewer enquiries.
According to C. Veerabahu, Principal, V.O. Chidambaram College, Thoothukudi, interest in core science subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry is seeing a slight decline over the past three to four years, while there has been a growing interest in humanities courses such as history, economics and English.
Students prefer English language courses due to demand in content writing and its allied sectors. 'This year, we have introduced a new course in computer science programme with AI and Machine Learning, and the seats filled up within a short span of time, he says.
Despite the introductions of new courses across every field, the demand for computer science and electronics and communication engineering still thrives in the engineering sector, says Zahariya Gabriel, an admission in-charge officer from Francis Xavier college in Tirunelveli.
Many students from the coastal belts of Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli districts still prefer electrical engineering courses, with an eye on employment opportunities in the shipping industry, he adds.
Apart from the engineering courses and humanities streams, there is also growing curiosity among the students about allied health science courses.
According to Anitha, a professor from Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education in Kumaracoil, says their institution is the only one in Kanniyakumari district offering audiology and speech language pathology, making it a consistently in-demand programme. Students from neighbouring States like Kerala are enrolling in the course.
'BA and BBA Aviation courses are highly sought after by students for admission,' she says.
Although a significant number of the population is involved in enrolling their children in higher education courses, there are pockets of unaware marginalised people, who require greater exposure to government schemes such as Pudhumai Penn, Tamil Pudhalvan and Naan Mudhalvan, which significantly helps the students during their journey for higher education.
The district administrations are actively engaged in the process, by organising career guidance programmes and other awareness campaigns. In Thoothukudi, these campaigns target coastal communities, conservancy workers and others aiming to improve higher education enrolment ratios across all sectors of society.
