Mangaluru: The four-decade-old Mangalore University (MU), which was unable to receive the expected number of admissions, has decided to extend the last day for applying to its postgraduate courses offered at the Mangalagangothri campus until Aug 30. The new academic session will commence from Sept 1.According to sources from MU, many departments that had no admissions last year continue to experience the same situation. Even those departments that previously had good admissions received a poor response this year. During the last few days of the previous deadline, some courses received a few applications, and officials hope that the extension will help attract more applicants.Raju K Mogaveera, registrar of MU, told TOI that the university’s postgraduate courses receive few candidates from North Karnataka. With universities in that region announcing their results a few days ago, MU is optimistic that there will be some admissions. They would lose the opportunity if the admission process is not extended, he said, adding that considering this, the university has decided to extend the deadline. They have also received a few applications in the last few days and are hopeful that these will result in increased admissions.When asked how many courses have received fewer than the required admissions to run a course, Mogaveera said that the exact figure will be announced once the process is over. However, some departments that did not have admissions last academic year continue to follow the same trend. “There is no provision to shut these departments, for example, the mass communication and journalism or materials science department, are constituted under statute. If there are no admissions to these and other departments like last year, we will make separate plans for the faculty of these departments,” he said, adding that some faculty members are likely to be deputed to other departments with similar subjects. “A lot of departments that do not have admissions have less than one permanent faculty,” he said. PL Dharma, vice-chancellor of MU, was not available for comments.
