Colleges to give add-on courses

Of these,Disaster Management,Women Studies and Police Administration would be introduced at Post Graduate Government College for Girls,Sector 11,while Yoga and Physical Fitness and Web designing and Animation have been proposed for the Post Graduate Government College for Girls,Sector 42.

“As the permission for new add-on courses is given by the UGC,the colleges have been in interface with the commission and a request for these have already been sent. Most likely,it would be granted soon so that these could be introduced from this academic session. The curriculum for these new courses,as per UGC guidelines,is already being framed and put in place by the Panjab University,” principal of PGGCG-42 Mani Bedi,who is also the co-ordinator for admissions at government colleges,said.

These courses have been designed in a flexible system as they run parallel to the conventional BA,B Com,BSc and BCA degrees. A student can take up the conventional degree courses and opt for one of these add-on courses.

At the end of graduation,an advanced diploma in the respective add-on course would be awarded to the students. The number of seats in each college for each add-on course has been fixed as 40.

Also,there are no restrictions as they are free to diversify into various fields not necessarily related with their core discipline.

For instance,a student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in a science subject could pursue a course in Event Management. Similarly,a student with Arts background may have the option to go for Bio-Informatics.

Not only are they aimed at providing career-oriented courses,but also to offer options to students who are not able to make through courses where admission is solely based on merit list with high cut-off percentage,for instance BCom and BCA.

The students before opting for these add-on courses are being counselled through orientation sessions by the respective colleges in order to have an idea about student’s interest and aptitude.

“Normally the number of students applying for these add-on courses is limited,thus admission is given on the basis of interview. If this year,number of applications received is more than the number of seats,the admission process could be on merit list,” Mani Bedi said.

Add-on courses like Tourism and Travel Management,Bio-Informatics,Environmental Auditing,Event Management,Guidance and Counselling and Multi Media are already being run at the colleges.

ROADMAP FOR NEXT FIVE YEARS

“The department has asked the principals of all the government colleges to prepare a prospective plan for next five years to evaluate and analyse type of vocational courses that can be introduced at undergraduate level. These would be designed keeping in mind the average students who have limited options when it comes to professional or career oriented courses,” said the Director Higher Education Ajoy Sharma.

INITIATIVE

The need-based add-on courses or vocationalisation scheme at undergraduate level is an initiative by the UGC during their VIII plan and has been recently modified for career-oriented programmes. The objective of the scheme is to introduce career and market-oriented,skill enhancing add-on courses that have utility for job,self-employment and empowerment of the students.