Wednesday, June 6, 2018

    BBA Vs BBS: Weighing Both Courses

    BBA Vs BBS:WEIGHING BOTH COURSES
    "One provides practical knowledge and skills, while the other offers in-depth knowledge"

    If you are a student of Management stream and looking to pursue further education after completing your higher secondary level, what course would you choose? For most students, it would be either Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) or Bachelor in Business Studies (BBS).

    The Tribhuvan University (TU) is offering both programmes of four years, so what is better course to take up for a better career?

    Both programmes have their pros and cons opine educators and students.

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    “The course coverage of BBA is highly superior in comparison to BBS. BBA covers a wide range of subjects including psychology and sociology,” informs Pushpa Raj Ojha, Assistant Campus Chief of Nepal Commerce Campus (NCC).


    But that doesn’t necessarily make BBA a better course, he adds pointing out that “BBS course offers in-depth knowledge regarding the subject matters than BBA”.



    Micro and Macro Economics, Cost and Management Accounting, Financial Accounting — many such subjects of BBA and BBS are the same. Yet the course content of BBS is “more enriched and prepare academicians and policy makers better” as claimed by Ganesh Bista, BBS Coordinator of Kathmandu Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). “This is because the way BBS covers the content of each subject is unmatched.”

    However, BBS comes short in case of practical knowledge. “There is a lack of practical knowledge in this course — it doesn’t encourage compulsory internship programmes like BBA,” he informs.



    BBA on the other hand, “being a semester-based system encourages a participatory environment where teachers get to know their students’ shortcomings better” as per Rajesh Karki, BBA Coordinator of KIST. He reveals that BBA as a course has “a comparatively higher level of competency” to deliver than that of annualsystem of BBS.

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    BBA is a course catering more knowledge required in market, says Jhabindra Pokharel, a lecturer of Finance to both BBA and BBS levels in Shanker Dev Campus, Putalisadak.


    Moreover, he feels the semester system gives an edge over BBS. “The semesterbased system gives students the opportunity of giving presentations, doing project works, internal exams, 100 per cent attendance and discipline — 40 per cent of the total marks are evaluated from these factors, unlike BBS where students get evaluated solely on performance in the final examinations,” he cites.

    Along with these, the summer project in the VIIth Semester and internship in the final semester make BBA more in touch with the market than the one research report that BBS students have to make in the fourth (final) year, Pokharel points out.

    Ojha also feels that the exposure BBA provides to students is unmatched by the course of BBS.


    Prija Rai, currently pursuing BBA VIIIth Semester at Padma Kanya Multiple Campus, is a good example of how practical knowledge helped her ace in her studies. As a part of her studies, she got to do an internship at Rastriya Banijya Bank for two months, and “I learned about the working environment, how to handle pressure and negotiate with people — if it weren’t for the internship we would be limited to the theoretical concept the course provides.”

    Also, “the variety of subjects one gets to study in BBA enrich us.”

    The only drawback that she sees in BBA is that she can’t pursue any job as she has to spend the whole day taking classes and completing assignments.

    A BBS graduate Sujan Neupane is pursuing Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM). And he feels some problems pursuing this course as his BBS studies did not develop in him the skills of “doing presentations and report writing”.

    He shares, “I have to put in extra effort to adapt to interactive learning environment of MBA now,” but is confident that “after I complete MBA, the difference would cease. I will have the same qualification as a person who has done BBA and then MBA”.

    But he says, he has a better knowledge of the subjects of Cost and Management Accounting and Micro and Macro Economics. “This is usually the case with BBS students as they learn these subjects for a whole year as compared to BBA students who go through them for only a semester.


    BBS course was made a four-year in 2014 to meet the demand of four-year academic degree. “Making BBS a four-year programme has helped students gain enough credit hours required for further studies abroad,” Bista says. However, he along with Ojha, Pokharel and Karki, believe that students choose BBA over BBS due to “high pass rate and chance to score better”.

    And the apparent distinction between these two courses is their cost. As per Ojha, the cost to study BBA in a government campus can amount up to more than 10 times the cost of studying BBS — a single semester fee in BBA will cover the whole package of BBS. Likewise, at least thrice the amount required to study BBS covers the BBA course in private colleges.

    COURSE CONTENT COMMON SUBJECTS IN BOTH COURSES
    • Micro Economics
    • Macro Economics
    • Principles of Management
    • Human Resource Management
    • Cost and Management Accounting
    • Business Communication
    • Fundamentals of Marketing
    • Statistics
    • Business Law
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Taxation
    • Financial Accounting
    • Business Environment
    • Organisational Behaviour
    • Business Research Methods


    DIFFERENCES
    The four streams of concentration courses in BBS in the final year encourage students to focus on particular functional area of Business Studies — Accounting, Finance, Management or Accounting.

    In BBA, students can study Computer System and IT Applications, Introductory Database, Psychology, Sociology for Business, and E-commerce among others.

    source: The Himalayan Times, Education Times. June 7, 2018

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