Jamshedpur, Sept. 25: There are few takers here for the ambitious plans of Ranchi University vice-chancellor S.S. Kushwaha, who is anxious to launch scores of professional courses in one go. Both teachers and students point out that the track record of the existing courses in the steel city is far from encouraging. The university, they felt, would do well to first study these courses and the placement plight of the students, before luring more gullible students to attend half-baked courses with poor faculty, and yet pay through their nose.
Karim City College, for example, was the first institution in the state to start a three-year degree course on mass communication and video production. Though the course was introduced with much fanfare, under the self-financing scheme in 1997, it has not really taken off, partly because there are very few opportunities in the state. The majority of the students completing the course have failed to land a job in the media.
Around 150 students have so far passed out from the institute but only a handful of them secured some kind of assignment. Leena Singh, who passed out this year, feels that while the infrastructure was reasonably good, the faculty is hardly satisfactory. “We were not allowed to have sufficient practical experience. The guest lecturers invited to engage classes are usually not experts on the subject. Some of them are still doing their diploma and yet are allowed to engage degree classes,” she said.
Mamata Chaturvedi, another student of 2000 batch, also endorsed the view and said though theory classes are conducted regularly on weekdays, practicals are held just once a month. The college claimed that representatives from the local All India Radio (AIR), Ranchi Doordarshan, E-TV, Patna, Celluloid Chapter and the local media are invited to teach theory classes. The college has also opened a placement cell of late, said principal S.N. Hashmi. But though the college boasts of having equipment like the U-matic camera, digital set-up and non-linear computerised system for editing work, besides a library, the placement has been poor.
Under the self-financing scheme, several similar courses were introduced by other constituent colleges. The Abdul Bari Memorial College this year introduced a three-year degree course on advertising, sales promotion and sales management. But students who took admission to the course almost unanimously felt that absence of good professionals in the field who could take classes here, has affected them. Currently, faculty members of the commerce department are conducting the classes. A three-year honours degree office management and secretarial practice was introduced at Jamshedpur Worker’s College last year. The college plans to open a placement cell too, says principal S.S. Razi. But there is hardly any silver lining as the students see no light at the end of the tunnel. Either the industrial scenario in the state should be so bullish that it is able to absorb professionals; or the courses must be of national standard so that students can compete with the best from other states.
