| Monday, July 07, 2008
Farm courses attract top performers
With the trend in higher education highly favouring engineering,
Information Technology and medicine, one would have thought
agriculture-related courses would not have many takers. But
the week-long counselling for undergraduate courses at the Tamil
Nadu Agricultural University here told a different story.
Even students with very high cut-offs evinced keen interest
in these programmes.
The highest cut-off was 198.25. The topper R. Vishnu Varadhan
(194.25) from Dharapuram got admission in the B. Tech. Biotechnology
course. The second topper R. Boominathan (193.75) from Madurai
selected the B.Sc. Agriculture course.
The university admitted 965 students (see table).
“The demand this year has been very good just like last
year. Nearly 3,600 candidates had applied for the 12 undergraduate
disciplines. The university short-listed candidates based on
the cut-off marks in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology,”
said K. Vanangamudi, Dean (Agriculture).
With such high cut-offs, candidates could have easily gone in
for some other professional course, but it was refreshing to
see them opt for agri-related courses, both B.Sc. and B. Tech,
opined Dr. Vanangamudi. Another highlight was that there were
also students from urban areas to join these courses.
“Usually we have students from rural areas. But, now the
awareness is more and we have many takers from urban areas for
courses such as biotechnology, food processing and energy and
environmental engineering.”
Reasons
He attributed quite a few reasons for the good turnout this
year. The first and foremost reason being the good placement
record of the university.
“Public have become aware that such courses offer very
good job opportunities. Those opting for the B. Sc. courses
have the option of branching out into other specialisations
or attempting the civil services examinations.” He also
attributes the popularity of the courses to the wide media attention
they have attracted.
Last but not the least; it is because of the competency of the
university to conduct courses with the state-of-the-art facilities,
he added.
Courtesy: The Hindu - Education Plus
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