The Karnataka government has stopped 458 programmes for Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) degrees in government first-grade colleges for the year 2026-27 owing to a lack of enrollment, among other reasons.

In addition, intake has been reduced from a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 150 seats in a total of 1,380 combinations.

There are a total of 440 government first-grade colleges under the Collegiate Education Department in the State, and there is zero enrollment for a total of 1,091 undergraduate (UG) combinations in these colleges for the year 2025-26. In addition, single-digit students have been enrolled in a total of 190 combinations.

The largest number of colleges with zero enrollment and single-digit enrollment are in tier-2, tier-3 cities and rural areas. In addition, enrollment has also fallen in many government first-grade colleges in tier-1 cities, including Bengaluru and Mysuru.

Among the UG courses in which students have not enrolled are optional Kannada, History, Economics, Political Science, and Social Science.

No students have enrolled even in Chemistry, Computer Science, Physics, and Mathematics in colleges located in rural areas and tier-3 cities, while several combinations of BA in subjects such as Kannada, History, Economics, Political, Sociology have no takers in many degree colleges.

Responding to a question raised in the recent Budget session by Legislative Council member K. Vivekananda, Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar said that a review is being conducted to withdraw the courses with zero admissions from the last three years from this academic year.

Proposal

In addition, the Collegiate Education Department has submitted a proposal to the government that the demand for some old and traditional courses in government first-grade colleges has decreased. “If these courses are not withdrawn or the intake allocated for them is not reduced, affiliation fees and other fees will have to be paid to universities and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which has become a financial burden. And, there is a possibility that the Cummulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) scores will decrease during the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) assessment,” it stated.

The department also requested that the intake should be reduced for courses in which enrollment has been low for the last three years.

New courses permitted

Meanwhile, admissions are being made in many government first-grade colleges as per the fixed intake and the principals of the colleges have requested permission to start new courses and for seat enhancement for some courses in demand.

To introduce courses that are in line with industry demands and include apprenticeship in the learning process, permission was sought to start Apprentice Embedded Degree Programme (AEDP) skill-based courses in BCom in 45 colleges through Centre for Research in Schemes and Policies (CRISP) and BOAT (Board of Apprentice Training).

The government has given permission to start 230 new courses related to BA, BSc and Bachelor of Social Work degrees. In 186 colleges, permission has been given to increase the intake for existing and high-demand courses from a minimum of five seats to a maximum of 100 seats.

As many as 26 colleges have been given permission to start new Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) courses, sanctioning intake from a minimum of 30 to a maximum of 100 seats.

In addition, the government has issued an order allowing 63 colleges to start new AEDP courses with a total seating capacity of 60.