DU Likely to Provide Job-Oriented Courses to Students

On 20th March, New Delhi University will consider a proposal for setting up a center to provide job-oriented courses to students enrolled in its Campus of Open Learning.

The academic council will meet on March 22 to discuss the establishment of the center.

"This center will include a media center and will provide students with online and experiential learning courses," Payal Mago, director of Campus of Open Learning, stated. These will be skills-based courses and tailored to the needs of School of Open Learning (SOL) students in order to improve their employability." For instance, she stated that many SOL students were pursuing graduation while simultaneously managing their family businesses and that the center may provide a course on how to run a family business and increase profitability.

"Students will also acquire basic computer skills as well as several languages that will be useful to them," she added.

To begin, the center will provide three diploma courses: journalism (in both English and Hindi), a postgraduate diploma in library automation services, and mushroom cultivation.

There will be a mix of online and offline classes – either 50-50 per cent or 60-40 per cent, she said.

"Students will gain hands-on learning. For instance, in journalism, students will be required to conduct internships, and in mushroom cultivation, they will be taught how to develop five different varieties of mushrooms, for which we have discovered five nodal points," Mago stated.

The journalism course will be delivered in collaboration with Delhi University's Hansraj College, while experts have been identified for the other courses.

Nominal charges will be levied on the courses, Mago said, and they will be run on a no-profit basis, she said.

According to the meeting agenda, the courses will be in accordance with the National Education Policy.

In a similar event, the Delhi University Teachers' Association has announced that its members will boycott classes on Tuesday to demand one-time regulation for the acceptance of ad hoc and temporary teachers. It has been announced that a protest would be held outside the venue of the academic council meeting.