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INDIA: Salesian College Sonada Launches 4 New Honors Level Bachelor Degree Programs

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian College Sonada in Darjeeling, India, affiliated with the North Bengal University in Siliguri, is starting four new bachelor honor-level courses for the 2017-2018 academic year. The new courses are in mass communications, philosophy, geography and finance. The Salesian College provides 1,400 students opportunities for advanced studies and to complete their bachelor’s degrees. The college offers eight general degree courses including English, education, history, political science, sociology, management studies, business administration and computer science.

“Almost 30 years after starting the degree in philosophy, the Salesian College is starting an honors degree in philosophy this academic year. Seminarians, religious sisters and others wishing to pursue a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the college may now avail themselves of this opportunity for higher studies,” says Dr. George Thadathil, principal of the college.

In addition to the new honors course and general courses offered at the Salesian College, there are also six career-oriented programs that students can access including music, communicative English, travel and tourism management, computer application, sports management and community radio. The goal of the Salesian College is to provide academics mixed with opportunities for hands-on experience so students are well-prepared to enter the workforce.

The Salesian College officially launched a new radio station on Dec. 8, 2016, with 20 different programs produced in the Nepali language. This radio station (90.8 FM) is the first community/campus radio in West Bengal and the entire northeast India to be operated by a college. The Salesian radio station provides an opportunity for students and its listeners to tell their own stories and to share their experiences, as well as information on important topics and news affecting the local area.

It also allows students to be media contributors. A team of six radio hosts will provide the 20 shows a week, which will take place seven days a week for 12 hours each day. The programs, which run from one, two and three hours, are scheduled as daily, bi-weekly and weekly shows.

“Students in the journalism and mass communications program will have access to state-of-the -art audio editing labs as well as hands-on experience in the various aspects of radio production like scripting, editing, doing interview as well as anchoring the radio shows in the one and only college community radio in West Bengal and entire northeast India,” says Vice-Principal Fr. C.M. Paul.

With more than 1.2 billion people, India has the world’s fourth largest economy and according to UNICEF, is home to one-third of the world’s poor. Close to 217 million of India’s poor are children. Although more than 53 million people escaped poverty between 2005 and 2010, most remain vulnerable to falling back below the poverty line.

India’s youth face a lack of educational opportunities due to issues of caste, class and gender. Almost 44 percent of the workforce is illiterate and less than 10 percent of the working-age population has completed a secondary education. In addition,  many secondary school graduates do not have the knowledge and skills to compete in today’s changing job market.

Sources:

ANS – India – Hills College starts four new Honours-level courses

UNICEF – India