Pune: Career needs fuel midway subject switch by students

PUNE: A careful look at the form filling data for the semester examinations being conducted by the Savitribai Phule Pune University from February shows that students have switched subjects in the first and second years especially in the humanities stream.
Officials who scrutinised the data said it was a reflection of the times. With more students with a will to explore, and with colleges becoming more relaxed about their structures due to online classes coupled with their adoption of choice based credit system, students are able to choose from a wide variety of options now, principals said.

V B Gaikwad, principal of KTHM College, Nashik, said that his college has seen this trend in the undergraduate level and not at the master’s level.
“There is a big change among students now. Many students have opted for English even though they had not done so in their first term. Then there are cases of a complete change of subjects too. This is not limited to humanities, though the highest numbers are there, but also in the science stream. We have students who had chosen chemistry in first year of their under graduate studies and then picked something totally different in their second year. The online education, the choice based credit system allow such transfers,” Gaikwad said.
Sahil Alhat, a second-year BA student, said that he had taken political science in the first year which he dropped in second year and took optional English.
“When I was enrolling in BA, I was fresh out of school and didn't know much about the subjects to choose from, the jobs available or what I wanted to do. Now I want to try for MPSC and UPSC exams and I want to specialise in English in my BA final year so that I can take English as my optional subject in the competitive exams. Hence I dropped one of my subjects and added a new subject,” he added.
Anshara Shaikh, a final year student of geology had not chosen the subject at all when she enrolled in her first year of graduation.
“I was not very aware about the difference between geography and geology and I was also told by some people that both are almost the same. I took admission, only to realise that both the subjects are very different. When I tried to change my subject, I was told that I cannot do it. That is when I came to know that there was a provision to add subjects, which very few people know and colleges do not advertise. I changed my college and added geology as a subject and now in my third year, I am specializing in in as I want to become a hydrogeologist,” she said.
Rajendra Zunjarrao, principal of Modern College of Arts, Commerce and Science, said that students are more aggressively pursuing what they want now, which was not the case a few years ago.
“The earlier generations also wished to change subjects or add subjects. But there was a fear of actually approaching the principal or the university with such demands because it was widely believed that such changes cannot happen once you have taken admission. But now, students are aggressively pursuing what they think is right, which is a good sign,” said Zunjarrao.
“While it is common in graduation, I have someone who changed his mind in postgraduation. He completed his first term in MA Marathi, realized he doesn’t like it and now has taken up history. So, he also has to appear for all term I exams of MA History,” Zunjarrao said.