Value-added courses, as defined by the University Grants Commission (UGC), are optional, short-term courses designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of undergraduate students beyond the regular curriculum. These courses aim to improve employability, bridge skill gaps, and provide students with industry-relevant skills. The UGC encourages higher educational institutions (HEIs) to offer such courses under Curriculum Enrichment, Skill Development, and Outcome-Based Education (OBE) initiatives.
Objectives
- To provide students an understanding of the expectations of industry.
- To improve employability skills of students.
- To bridge the skill gaps and make students industry ready.
- To provide an opportunity to students to develop inter-disciplinary skills.
- To mould students as job providers rather than job seekers.
Example for some value added courses
- Basics of Goods and Services Tax
- E-Trading (Stock Market Investments)
- Financial Markets & Portfolio Management
- Fashion Jewellery Making
- Film criticism
- LaTex
- Ms.Word
- Multimedia-II
- Production and Material Management
- SAP (Systems, Applications, Products in data processing)-II
- Space Science
- Structure Query Language
- Basics of Goods and Services Tax
- Communication Skills – II
- Communicative English” from MOODLE
- Diagnostic Laboratory Technology
- Food Adulteration
- Home Furnishing
- HTML 5
- Human Resources Accounting
- Matlab
- Photoshop
- Sign Language
- SPSS
- Production and Material Management
- Astrophysics
- E-Commerce+
- Financial Institutions, Instruments & Markets
- Home Textiles
- IP V6
- Natural Language Processing
- Psychology for Happy Living
- Soft Computing
UGC Guidelines Reference Sources
- UGC LOCF (Learning Outcomes-based Curriculum Framework)
- National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 – promotes multidisciplinary education and skill-building through VACs.
- CBCS (Choice-Based Credit System) – Allows flexibility for VAC integration.
Benefits of UGC-Approved VACs
- Improves NAAC accreditation performance.
- Enhances student career-readiness.
- Encourages multidisciplinary and flexible learning.
- Bridges academia-industry gap.
- Aligns with NEP 2020 & Outcome-Based Education (OBE).