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BMS Entrance Exam to be scrapped? Here’s why that’s a bad idea

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A recent edition of a national daily, along with rumors being circulated in Delhi University, reported that the next major change DU is ready to implement is the abolition of the entrance exam for Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) from the next academic session. The proposal, if seen through, would render the admission process of BMS the same as most other commerce based courses, largely class 12th Board Exam percentage driven.

Last year, following the implementation of the Four Year Degree Program, Delhi University revamped a lot of its course structures. Some courses were completely done away with. The implementation of BMS was a result of one such policy decision. DU combined three of its most sought after management degrees, BBE (Bachelor of Business Economics), BFIA (Bachelor of Financial and Investment Analysis) and BBS (Bachelor of Business Studies) to form BMS. Adding fuel to the frenzy surrounding its implementation, the colleges offering this course were also changed. And now, the entrance test is being considered for cancellation.

This decision, if seen through, can prove to be a major setback. The whole purpose of having an entrance exam was to test the basic logical and analytical abilities of a student opting to pursue a career in management. Removing the entrance exam and admitting students solely on their board result is the same as having IIT and AIIMS remove their exams also, the flimsy logic being that students are anyway taught everything once they enter, so why test if they fit the course or not. The one logic that eludes me is that if a degree in management is the same as any other field in commerce, then why teach this degree program at all? The students might as well be taught Economics or Mathematics as their main subjects.

In hindsight, the one blunder DU has already committed, in addition to implementing FYUP, is the abolition of the previously held group discussion round in the BMS admission procedure, on the premise that group discussions don’t really point out a students ability to become a good manager. Being able to sit in a diverse crowd and still make your point is in fact the very definition of the quintessential CEO.

For what it’s worth, the existing procedure does subject students to a personal interview round, thereby requiring that the candidate has a more holistic personality, rather than just the super power to cram up piles of books and blurt them out on empty sheets. But apparently, that is also being abolished. But on what grounds? That a good manager does not even need to have basic skills of being able to address a stressful situation?

The plan, if implemented is yet another debacle in the long list of controversial moves that DU is very unapologetically making.

Illustration by Mehr Gill for DU Beat

Update (20th May): Entrance exam for BMS will be held in 2014 as well. Read this article for further details.

Presently a Business Studies student at Shaheed Sukhdev College Of Business Studies, I plan to spend my years discovering what I am capable of. Books, movies and friends are on the top of my timetable and for me college is about having a good time and trying new things. I believe it’s better to do a few things well than a lot of them poorly. Punctuality is a virtue I am yet to experience.

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