LUCKNOW, Aug. 10 -- A high demand for professional programmes where students faced a marked competition for seats was observed during admissions to various courses at Lucknow University this year. Most of the entrance exams have been conducted and further process is underway. While professional streams required entrance examinations and strict monitoring measures like mobile jammers (especially for the BBA LLB entrance exam), the LU issued direct document verification notices for specialised PG courses that saw limited applicant turnout. Candidates seeking enrolment in specialised technical streams such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, data science & analytics, cyber security & cyber forensics, renewable energy, biostatistics, environmental science, and molecular & human genetics were called directly to verify credentials without competitive screening. Conventional humanities and language subjects including Sanskrit, linguistics, philosophy, defence studies, Arabic/Arab Culture, Ancient Indian History & Archaeology, Western History, Composite History, French, home science and Urdu similarly bypassed entrance test due to moderate registration matching seat capacities. While Ancient Indian History & Archaeology, Western History and Composite History had a direct admission, applicants for MA (political science) topped the arts faculty with a maximum of 969 applications, followed by English with 529 applicants, psychology with 507, economics with 439, sociology with 432, medieval and modern history with 340, and master of social work with 320 applicants. The faculty of law spearheaded the demand in professional, tech-driven, and legal programmes with over 9,000 PG applications, led by a record 6,073 applications for the 3-year LL.B (NEP) and 2,941 for the LL.M programme. At the undergraduate level, the 5-year integrated BA LL.B received 7,000 applications, pushing the competition to 23 candidates per seat while the newly launched BBA LLB course received 800 applications for 180 seats. The BBA programme attracted 6,000 applications for 450 seats-a ratio of 17 applicants per seat-while the BCA course recorded 3,800 applications following the introduction of four new specialised tracks. BSc (agriculture hons) received 900 applications for 150 seats, while MBA and MBA-MTTM programmes collectively generated 2,905 applications. Mainstream core academic degrees also retained strong numbers. MCom registered 985 applications. In science, MSc zoology led with 978 applicants, followed by biotechnology (500 applicants), chemistry (419 applicants), botany (359 applicants), mathematics and forensic science (313 applicants each), microbiology (281 applicants) and physics (259 applicants)....