In fact, he doesn't plan to write his final examinations. Aggrawal is brushing up his Persian to ensure that he does well in the Civil Services examinations which offers a paper in his chosen subject.

Nitin's is not an isolated case. There are hundreds of others who enroll for various courses at Delhi University but disappear midway. They do not want a degree in that particular subject as they are aware there is no job market for that course. For instance, 150 students enroll in the masters course in Buddhist Studies, but as many as 70 students are not interested in taking the examinations or attending classes. No one bothers to find out why they drop out or what should be done to get them interested.

Prof S H Qashami (Persian centre) says: ``The faculties of various departments havewritten to the vice-chancellor about the problem but nothing seems to have come of it. The university authorities say they cannot deny anyone admission as long as the applicant is eligible. If a student done not want to take exams, nobody can force them to.''

Students, of course, have their own reasons for dropping out.

Take the case of Amit Sinha: He enrolled for the Sanskrit course because he had chosen Pali as a paper for his civil services examinations. He only atended the Pali classes, Sinha, however, failed to make it. So, he took up a computer course and managed to get a job in a software company.

``Many students who have taken up Sanskrit are actually waiting for opportunities elsewhere. Enrolling for the course is a stop-gap arrangement. Some students enroll for hostel and bus pass facilities,'' says a DU professor.

Many enroll for some offbeat course at DU because they want access to the university library. Even from amongst the 10 students who take up a masters course in Germanic andRomance Studies, three to four students drop out. Dr M K Julka told The Indian Express: ``The drop-out rate is higher in case of the certificate courses. As many as 50 students drop out from the 100-odd who enroll for it. In fact, many don't know why they have taken admission.'' The Germanic and Romance Studies Centre offers courses in German languge. The masters course includes papers on German philosophy, linguistics, history and translation. Courses in other Germanic languages like Swedish and Danish and languages with Latin root including Portuguese, Spanish and Italian are not on offer.

Prof S K Vij, Centre of Slavonic and Finno-Ugaroan Studies said, ``From the 200 students who enrol for certificate courses, at least 50 give up on the way. From the five lone students who enrol for masters, one or two drop out. Knowledge of languages like Czeck, Slovak, Croatian, Polish, Hungarian, Russian and Bulgarian does not ensure great jobs.'' The story is no different for other courses including African and evenChinese and Japanese Studies.