Bangalore University

BCom stream

BU registrar K K Seethamma

Central College

Dr B G Bhaskara

syllabus

The(BU) registrar was in for a surprise in the first week of July when she received a letter from commerce colleges asking that the university drastically increase the number of seats in theThe rush among students to study BCom is such that one college sold 300 applications for a maximum 120 seats that it has for it was not possible to convince students that there were no seats left. While pure sciences and humanities courses were taking a dip with literally no takers, BCom's rise has been consistently increasing every year. Academicians say that this year, there is another 10 per cent rise in the number of applicants seeking admission to BCom courses.Ranjita Gowda, a first-year BCom student, said, "Getting into the commerce stream is a big challenge. There are very few seats available in most colleges." While confirming this trend,said, "We get a number of applications (both from government and private) to enhance commerce seats in colleges. There is a great demand from students to join commerce due to increased job opportunities for commerce graduates.” Dr K Nirmala, who teaches in BU's commerce department said, "Students say that the starting salary they are offered is Rs 20,000 to 25,000 and this is driving the demand for the course. Postgraduates stand a chance of being directly recruited as probationary officers. The demand for PG courses in commerce is so much that the cut-off atis around 85 per cent.”To this,, associate professor of commerce, Vivekananda Degree College, added, “When I was a student, the number of students in each class was around 60. Now, I have to teach a classroom of 120. In fact, colleges are seeking even more admissions in a section. This shows the demand for commerce has been steadily growing over the last few years.”It actually has touched a new high this year. Commerce faculty members also say that theis being modified frequently with the help of the industry, which is also a reason for good opportunities coming the way of BCom students.BU’s dean if commerce M K Sridhar said, “If we analyse the great demand for commerce, it is because students believe that they have better job prospects by studying just BCom, ie, specialisation is not being sought. Secondly, many companies are not differentiating between PGs and UGs. With the finance sector expanding, job opportunities are increasing day by day. Thirdly, a BCom course doesn’t need much investment unlike a science one. All thesefactors are adding to the demand for commerce courses.”Demand for the commerce stream has also increased the fees drastically. For example, if a BCom course in a government college comes at a fee of Rs 1,000 to 3,000, it goes up to Rs 50,000 in an aided college and up to Rs 1.25 lakh in an unaided college.Increased demand for BCom is also turning out to be a headache for lecturers who say that it is becoming difficult to teach commerce. Elaborating on this, Bhaskara, a lecturer, said, “When the strength in one classroom goes beyond 100 students, we begin to feel that we are handling a seminar or function. If we look at international standards, the ideal student strength in postgraduate class is 20 while it is about 35 for undergraduates. But look at our condition.Most of the time we are left controlling the class and not teaching!”“With the increase in numbers in commerce, the real challenge for us faculty is to cater to higher expectations,” said one lecturer.