Chennai: Madras University is witnessing a sharp drop in enrolment for its religious studies and several language programmes, leading to concerns over declining academic relevance and wastage of resources.

Established in 1857, the university has long been recognised for offering postgraduate, diploma, certificate and research programmes across 78 departments. However, its academic standing has slipped in recent years, falling to 11th place among state universities.

While departments offering postgraduate courses in mathematics, criminology, cyber forensics, information security, ancient history and archaeology, economics and international law continue to attract students, they too face issues such as shortage of faculty, limited research opportunities and lack of personalised training.

Departments offering religious studies — including philosophy, Christian studies, Buddhism, Jainism, Saiva Siddhantham and Divya Prabandham — along with minority language departments like Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Arabic, Telugu, Sanskrit and Sanghapalaka, have recorded zero admissions. Despite this, faculty members continue to draw salaries ranging from ₹2 lakh to ₹3 lakh per month.

Even science and tribal studies departments such as pharmacology, toxicology and anthropology have only single-digit enrolment. Academics attribute the decline to outdated curriculum, inadequate job-oriented training and limited updates to match competitive exam requirements.

Former faculty members said non-performing departments should be closed and staff redeployed to government colleges, as done earlier at Annamalai University, to prevent financial drain and protect institutional reputation.