Mangalore University has decided to stop the four postgraduate courses from the academic session 2025-2026 after receiving very few or no student admissions for the past few years. These courses will be temporarily discontinued and kept under suspended animations: Electronics, Mass Communication and Journalism, Statistics, and Human Resource Development.
What’s the Reason Behind?
The number of students enrolling in these courses has been in the single digits or even zero, according to university vice-chancellor Prof. P. L. Dharma, which makes it challenging to keep them running.
"These programs cannot be run with such a small student body. The programs will be brought back to life if enough students apply in 2026–2027, he said.
The university had previously made the decision to stop offering any postgraduate courses with fewer than 15 students. Even after this number was lowered to ten students, not enough people applied to these four programs.
Departments Struggling with Faculty Shortage
Last year, the MCJ Department received only one application, while the Department of Statistics received none. Without a permanent faculty member, the HRD course was taught by guest lecturers and Commerce Department instructors.
Similarly, since senior professors retired, the Statistics Department has been without a permanent faculty member. There is only one permanent faculty member in each of the departments of MCJ and Electronics.
While the Electronics faculty will support the university's Cyber Security program, Prof. Dharma stated that the MCJ faculty will continue to teach journalism as an open elective for students from other departments..
University Clarifies on Tax Dues
The Vice-Chancellor claimed that the Konaje Gram Panchayat had not accurately calculated the tax when questioned about the outstanding tax payments. Only university buildings that are rented out and generate revenue are eligible for tax payments. We are prepared to pay the debt in two installments as soon as the tax is accurately determined," he stated. He added that Mangalore MLA and Assembly Speaker U. T. Khader had already been made aware of the problem.
