In order to encourage students towards opting for the vocational courses, the Delhi University has been offering sops during the ongoing admissions. The latest in the series is the inclusion of music as a Discipline Course-II (DC-II). The Vice-Chancellor Dinesh Singh on Friday said that music will now be an option for DC-II for even colleges who don’t offer it at the moment.
At present music is offered, only as a Discipline Course-I in the Faculty of Music. However, plans are now to introduce music in all the colleges of the university so that it can be taken up as a minor. Singh said, “If not as a DC-II, students should at least get a chance to pursue vocational courses as a DC-II. While music is offered as a DC-I subject, it is not offered as a DC-II because it falls under the vocational category. I want that colleges introduce music as a course in their colleges and allow children to pursue it.”
The change comes as a relief to many students who couldn’t pursue music as a DC-I because of career pressures. A student of Delhi applying for admissions this year said, “I have to choose a DC-I which is completely academic because from a career point of view that will benefit me. But I want to pursue music as that is what I love doing. If music is introduced as a DC-II, it will be a dream-come-true.” Though the V-C has not issued instructions to colleges in this regard, the same is likely to be done in coming days. “We have to open horizons for students and propagate skill-based learning,” he said.
Other than this, the university also eased admissions for students who have studied vocational courses in school. From this year, the admission guidelines stated that vocational subjects can be calculated in the ‘best of four’ aggregate after a deduction of 10 marks. This comes as a relief to many students who previously were not able to get admission.