At Douglas College in New Westminster, Canada, Music Diploma is offered as a diploma in Music programme. The programme runs for 4 semesters, delivered on campus. Teaching is in English. Tuition for international students is CAD 682 per credit (CAD 167 per credit for local students).
Study develops performance skills through private lessons in voice or a chosen instrument, alongside classes in music theory and history, class piano, and performing ensembles. Auditioning for one of the college's performance groups gives access to live playing experience via concerts, recordings and festival appearances. Many graduates go on to university to train as public-school music teachers, while the diploma also lays groundwork for further study in performance, composition, private teaching or other music-related careers.
Requirements
Admission Requirements: The general college admission requirements and English 12 at C or an approved substitution, plus a four-part audition and assessment. PRACTICAL AUDITION: you perform on your instrument or voice; to be placed in performance-level studio instruction the minimum standards are RCM Grade 10 or equivalent for keyboard, RCM Grade 5 or equivalent for guitar, and RCM Grade 6 or equivalent for every other instrument and for voice. THEORY ASSESSMENT: fluency with musical rudiments. AURAL SKILLS ASSESSMENT: reliable pitch matching, accurate melodic memory, sight singing and sight rhythm. INTAKE INTERVIEW: a meeting with a music faculty member about your course plan and goals. The programme page carries an international application block. International applicants must also clear Douglas's separately published international entry standard on top of anything listed here: for undergraduate study that is a final-year school average of at least 60 percent (or one of the college's age routes) plus Grade 11 Mathematics at C for most programmes, and for post-degree and post-baccalaureate study a bachelor's degree of at least three years with a cumulative average of at least 60 percent. The international English minimums are TOEFL iBT 83 (writing 21 or better for post-degree and post-baccalaureate credentials), IELTS Academic 6.5 with no band under 6.0 for those same credentials, PTE Academic 56, Duolingo 110, CAEL 60, CLB 8 in each skill, Cambridge CAE 75, Cambridge CPE 60, or EIKEN Grade 1.
Application Details
Start Date:Douglas runs three fifteen-week semesters a year: Fall from September to December, Winter from January to April and Summer from May to August. The programme page lists intakes in Fall (September). The Fall 2026 semester began on 8 September 2026 and Winter 2027 classes begin on 4 January 2027.
Application Deadline:Douglas publishes college-wide application windows rather than a single date for every programme, and the domestic and international timetables are different. DOMESTIC APPLICANTS apply on EducationPlannerBC. Applications for a semester open about eleven months ahead, at 9:00 a.m. on the first business day of the opening month: 1 October for the following Fall. Douglas labels this a limited-enrolment programme, so it sets no single fixed closing date: the round shuts when the intake fills, and the college’s own test is whether the programme still appears in the EducationPlannerBC drop-down list. Applicants are acknowledged in writing about two to three weeks after applying, and qualified applicants are then ranked against the programme’s published criteria. This programme adds its own dated step: Fall 2026 domestic applications are closed and Fall 2027 domestic applications open at 9:00 a.m. on 1 October 2026. INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS follow Douglas’s separate college-wide dates, not the domestic ones: the Fall (September) 2026 intake closed on 31 May 2026, Winter (January) 2027 closes on 30 September 2026, and Summer (May) 2027 closes on 31 January 2027. Limited-enrolment programmes can fill before those dates and open-enrolment ones last only while seats do, so Douglas advises applying early enough to leave room for a study-permit application. Read from the programme page and the college deadline pages on 6 September 2026; Douglas had not yet published Summer 2027 domestic closing dates.
