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After English Honours, B.Com Honours Undergoes Result Woes

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Students pursuing B.Com (Honours) express their grievances as the results of the first-semester examinations leave students dissatisfied.

On 12th May 2020, results of the first-semester B.Com (Hons.) were declared. However, there were surfacing concerns regarding discrepancies in the same. Students have put forth the issue of disproportionate results i.e. the marks obtained in practicals and internal assignments not corresponding to the results of the odd semester examinations.

“I believe that my classmates have been marked incorrectly. For someone who scores eleven out of twenty-five in internals, getting a score of nine or ten in the core paper seems to be uncanny,” says a first-year student who responded on the condition of anonymity. The Varsity’s faulty evaluation has repeatedly been a cause of concern to students with respect to their results.

“Our seniors were not surprised when we told them about the discrepancies, this shows how deep-rooted and normalised this problem is,” says a student pursuing B.Com (Hons.) who wished to remain anonymous.

“The results have mostly been fine. Other than a few minor discrepancies in some subjects, the only major cause of concern has been the Microeconomics GE (Generic Elective) paper. Some students feel that the marking has been outrightly random. Students with perfect scores in internals and a well-written test have been marked far below their expectations,” says a first-year student pursuing B.Com. (Hons.)  from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC).

Moreover, the issue of revaluation also stands as an inconvenience amidst the contemporary COVID-19 pandemic. With shops closed, attaining photostats becomes a tedious task. Along with the technical constraints, the revaluation and rechecking procedures emerge as faulty systems as students often claim that the Varsity gathers revenue from its own faults.

The recurring glitches in the results along with the University’s proposal of conducting online examinations have been a worrying matter to the students of Delhi University.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Priyanshi Banerjee
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Admissions

Course Profile: B.Com (Honours)

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Here’s all the information you might be looking for about the B.Com (Honours) course.

  • What is the course about?

B.Com (Honours) or Bachelor of Commerce is a highly demanded course, especially by commerce students. It trains students about various aspects of business and finance.

Some of the core papers offered by University of Delhi (DU) for this course are Financial Accounting, Business Law, Corporate Law, Income Tax Law and Practice, Auditing and Corporate Governance, etc. Among various others, the electives include Banking and Insurance, Fundamentals of Investment, International Business, and Corporate Tax Planning.

  • What are some top colleges for this course?

 Many DU colleges are famous for their B.Com courses. Among these are, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Hindu College, Hansraj College, Ramjas College, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Jesus and Mary College, Sri Venkateswara College and SGTB Khalsa College.

  • What are some good career options?

 Students of B.Com (Honours) have multiple career options that they can pursue later on. A lot of the students go on to become Chartered Accountants (CA), or Company Secretaries (CS), or study M.Com or MBA. Many others take up banking jobs or become accountants, auditors or financial analysts and get employed in investment banking, mutual funds, legal firms, finance companies, and the public sector.

Many Indian and foreign institutes offer certifications that are considered highly valuable. Among these are Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and others.

Some go on to study law and get into the field of corporate law. Yet others can pursue civil services, academia or financial journalism. Hence, there is no dearth of options for a B.Com student.

  • Are there any notable alumni?

 A glimpse of the many famous people who studied B.Com Hons at Delhi University as youngsters include:

  • AK Sikri, Former Supreme Court Judge
  • Arun Jaitley, Former Union Minister and lawyer
  • S. Bassi, Former Commissioner of Police of Delhi
  • Naveen Jindal, Industrialist and former Member of Parliament
  • What do students say about this course?

 According to Aradhita Tuli, a first-year B.Com student at SRCC, “B.Com (Honours) is a course with a vast variety of subjects from business-related laws to taxation. It coincides with the syllabus prescribed for CA (exams). It has an interesting and understanding-based syllabus.”

 

Feature Image Credits: Money Control

Prateek Pankaj

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Admissions

Delhi High Court Seeks the Stand of the Centre and University in Opposing the New Admission Criteria

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On 10th June, the Delhi High Court sought the position of the Centre and the University of Delhi (DU) on the plea which challenges the jolting changes made to the admission criteria for two of the most popular courses —  B.A. (Honours) Economics and B.Com (Honours). The Court further went on to call this amendment arbitrary due to its short notice.

This alteration of admission criteria was made a day before the University’s applications for Undergraduate (UG) courses were opened. This unforeseen step took several students by surprise, and raised the level of difficulty as well as complexity with respect to getting admitted to the said course.

After several discontented students contacted him, Sahibdeep Singh, an alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce, took up the cause. He first submitted an application to the Dean of Students’ Welfare Office and also started an online petition on change.org. This petition is called Roll Back New Admission Criteria: Request to University of Delhi, which is addressed to Yogesh Tyagi, the Vice Chancellor. It has already achieved 887 signatures and aims to reach 1000.  

The aforementioned plea by lawyer, Charanpal Singh Bagri, insisted that this step was in violation with the principle of natural justice. This plea further seeks to repeal the sudden amendment and urges that the previous criteria should prevail. Two members of the University’s Executive Council and three members from the Academic Council have also written a joint letter to the Vice Chancellor for immediate roll back.

The Court has further asked the Ministry of Human Resource Development represented by Advocate Brajesh Kumar, and the varsity to file its response in four days, by 14th June. That will be the date for the next hearing on this matter.

Devyani Arora, a B.Com (Honours) student commented, “This stand of the High Court has been a ray of hope to the students. The decision will be based on careful consideration, keeping in mind the lakhs of students holding their breath.”

St. Stephen’s and Jesus and Mary College will continue with the previous admission criteria.

Feature Image Credits: Jagran Josh

 

Shivani Dadhwal

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News

DU will conduct entrance tests for B.Com and B.Com (H) in 2018

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According to many media reports, the University of Delhi has decided to conduct entrance tests for B.Com and B.Com (H) in the upcoming academic session. This information hasn’t been communicated through official varsity channels.

As of now, Delhi University conducts entrance examinations only for professional and postgraduate courses. Admissions to undergraduate programmes take place on the basis of 12th standard board examination results.

DU Beat had reported last year Dr. Manoj Khanna, the convener of the Delhi University admissions committee said, “We are planning to conduct entrance exams for admission to B.Com (Honours) and BA (Programme) for the upcoming academic session. We are ready for this in terms of infrastructure and preparedness. But this needs to be accepted by all statutory bodies.” Dr. Khanna also spoke about forming a tie-up with the CBSE board in this regard.

He also said that the foundation of this procedure will begin with the Commerce courses, but the committee is also exploring the possibility of this move in the case of other subjects. Dr. Khanna stated, “We are exploring all possibilities. We are taking all stakeholders, including college principals, faculty and students, in confidence and consulting them. If we succeed in organising this competition for the commerce stream, one-third of the student population will be catered to.”

The rationale behind implementing an entrance examination is that many deserving students do not get admission in several reputed courses and colleges due to low scores in board examinations. Through entrance tests, all students will be given a fair chance to prove their mettle.

 

Feature Image Credits: Find Your Institute

Niharika Dabral

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DUB Speak

Probing the Chatter around Commerce Courses in DU

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What was once DU’s flagship course is now being offered by most private universities. While it remains to be one of the most popular fields of study, does it live up to the hype? Dissecting the nitty-gritties of the curriculum, we find that there is ample room for improvement.

With the advent of the Choice-Based Credit System (CBCS) in 2015, there has been a paradigm shift in most courses. The University of Delhi embarked on a new-found semester system, discarding the erstwhile annual examinations. The rollout was a tedious process, full of delays and uncertainty. The reaction was eventually a mixed one.

In particular reference to commerce courses, CBCS has not enjoyed a favourable position among professors. A few recommendations by the academic council to revamp the syllabi have been welcome changes; including the introduction of the IT Act and computer applications as core subjects, with practical lessons to file ITRs under the subject Income Tax bringing the application aspect to theory. Introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the commerce curriculum is another indicator of the continuous efforts made by DU to make learning more relevant.

Unfortunately, despite all progressive steps, commerce courses continue to teach several redundant and outdated portions. E-commerce, an elective subject offered in the 3rd semester, for example, includes HTML as part of its practical lessons and other generic theory related to online business transactions. Similarly, many core subjects act as mere additions to the theory taught in the 10+2 level, and the non-existence of case studies from these subjects is equally appalling.

One of the Heads of Department of Commerce at a prominent DU college said, “Everything happens under the ambit of the UGC guidelines, which makes the process of recommending changes in the syllabus a bureaucratic one.” Management Accounting is a subject that was compulsorily taught earlier, but under CBCS, it has become a discipline elective subject. According to her, CBCS claims to be choice-based but it undermines the urgency of a few courses and hence offers uneven combinations. Choices are offered, but most colleges do not have the infrastructure, and when one course is pitted against the other, either of those important courses suffers.

The curriculum is also not particularly flexible and is largely poorly designed. Covering the entirety of Income Tax and Macroeconomics in one semester is unjustifiable for both the teachers and students, thus, leading to lack of in-depth knowledge on any subject.

Private universities have started cashing in on this flawed course structure and are beginning to offer a diverse, well-planned layout. What used to be DU’s flagship course is now offered by multiple universities.

Despite this, there are a plethora of career options available for a commerce graduate to choose from. This course witnesses the highest packages being offered to some of its graduates. Semester Four includes subjects which are relevant to the skill-set required by a graduate in any job, for example, the application of Business Mathematics is a tool that would help future managers, and Applications in functions like MS Excel can hugely benefit its stakeholders. If DU continues on this path to revamp the course structure after shorter intervals of time, it can actually lead to value addition of a student’s skill set and make him/her more employable.

A commerce degree in itself is said to never be enough, but it certainly is a stepping-stone to the corporate world. For all the aspiring Chartered Accountants in the pack of freshers, B.Com(H) offers the most ideal course structure.

 

Image credits: NDTV

Vijeata Balani

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Admissions 2017

Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College Mistakenly Announces B. Com Programme Cutoff as 80%, Leaves Students Stranded

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Students aspiring for the B. Com (Programme) course in the University of Delhi recently endured a massive shock when they were told that Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College (SBSEC) had mistakenly declared its cut-off for the general category as 80%. Students rushed to colleges this morning to cancel their admission and gain entry into SBSEC. However, around 10:00 am, the college revealed that there was an error and that the cut-off was actually 90%.

In response to the chaos, parents and students staged protests outside the college, demanding that the candidates be allowed to get admission in the course. Consequently, the police was called to control the masses.

Upon speaking to DU Beat, Dr. P.K. Khurana, the college’s Principal, stated that students are anyway advised to go to the college personally to see if they meet all the criteria before withdrawing their admission from other colleges. He also defended his stance by saying that “corrective action” had already been taken in the morning and that the admission procedure in evening colleges does not start before 4:00 pm, meaning that students should have checked the revised cut-off in the morning before rushing to college.

The college announced in the evening that it would not be taking any more candidates into the course and that students should retain their seats in the colleges in which they were previously enrolled. The admission of these candidates has therefore not been cancelled.

 

Feature Image Credits: Shaheed Bhagat Singh College

Vineeta Rana
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News

DU Curriculum to Include GST in Commerce Courses

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The machinery of education evolving and growing with the dynamic forces of time is evident. With the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) marking the most significant tax reform in the country since Independence, the implications of ‘one country, one tax’ was bound to permeate to the amassed literature of the textbooks. The University of Delhi’s Academic Council has announced that the historic unifying tax has been approved to be a part of the syllabus for Commerce students. The same has been recommended to the varsity’s Executive Council.

GST and the students

Considering the economic system has been practically refurbished, the council feels the inclusion of GST in the curriculums of B.A. Programme, B.Com (Programme), and B.Com (Hons.) is necessary for the current set of students to comprehend its totality. An air of ambivalence surrounds the introduction of the tax, as uncertainty shrouds over how it will influence various products and services. The new section on GST will be included from this academic session onwards.

The nitty-gritties of the tax will be taught in the third and fifth semesters to B.Com (Hons.) students and fifth and sixth semester students will have to study a paper on GST and Custom Law in B.Com (Prog.), while the course will be taught to B.A. (Prog.) students in the third and fourth semester, depending on the approval of the executive council.

The course curriculum will comprise of the constitutional framework of indirect taxes before GST, which shall focus on the taxation policies of the union and state governments, like the Value Added Tax. They will also be taught the drawbacks of the indirect taxes which palled over the country’s economy before GST. Further, they will be acclimatised to the structure of GST, the GST council, state compensation mechanism, registration, amongst other topics. The curriculum is also expected to include levy and collection of GST, which will cover taxable events like supply of goods and services, places of supply within state, interstate, import and export, time of supply, valuation rules, taxability of reimbursement of expenses, and exemption from GST.

The decision has been welcomed by the faculty members of the varsity’s colleges, who emphasise on the importance of the students learning the intricacies of the new economic structure. “So far, the Goods and Services Tax was not included in the curriculum. Going by the status quo, it is important that students understand the tax well. We are awaiting a formal notification from the University and will include it in the curriculum for this academic year”, said Reena Chadha, Professor at Shri Ram College of Commerce. Rajesh Jha, Professor at Rajdhani College and an Academic Council member, mentions that the Executive Council is most likely to give a nod to the academic inclusion.

GST: The unifying economic umbrella

Heralded as the mechanism to bring about ‘fiscal liberation’, the GST council has devised a system which seeks to subsume the complex net of an array of taxes previously levied. The system was rolled out on the midnight of June 30th and July 1st in a grand ceremony at the Central Hall, and witnessed the likes of the President, Prime Minister, Finance Minister, members of both the houses, and other eminent personalities. The journey to implement GST can be tracked back to ten years ago, ever since the government was aiming to bring about economic reforms. The tax will supposedly lead to widening the country’s tax base and enhancing compliance while also freeing up internal trade and effecting a direct growth in the country’s GDP. However, there stand various regulatory challenges in its path to ensure that the tax brings comfort to the country.

Dr. Bhibhu Pratap Sahu, Assistant Professor at Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, highlights the positive impact of the newly implemented tax. He says, “Tax has now been simplified for our country with GST. Revenue generated from GST will be generated in a manner that will benefit India. Economists are already expecting the tax revenue to reach 2 trillion from 1 billion so students should be apprised with the times they will have to work in.”

 

With inputs from India Today

Feature Image Credits: Media India Group

Saumya Kalia
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Admissions 2017

DU may conduct entrance exam for B.Com from 2017 onwards

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DU

An entrance exam for B.Com is in the offing from the upcoming academic session, in order to give students a fair chance to prove their mettle.

It has been speculated that Delhi University is likely to conduct an entrance exam for admission into B.Com courses beginning from the admission process in 2017. Currently, Delhi University conducts entrance examinations solely for professional and post graduate courses; admissions to undergraduate programmes take place on the basis of 12th standard board examination results. The most well known course under DU which does have an entrance examination procedure for the undergraduate course is the Bachelors of Management Studies.

Dr. Manoj Khanna, the convener of the Delhi University admissions committee said, “We are planning to conduct entrance exams for admission to B.Com (Honours) and BA (Programme) for the upcoming academic session. We are ready for this in terms of infrastructure and preparedness. But this needs to be accepted by all statutory bodies.” Dr. Khanna also spoke about forming a tie up with the CBSE board in this regard. He also said that the foundation of this procedure will begin with the Commerce courses, but the committee is also exploring the possibility of this move in the case of other subjects. Dr. Khanna stated, “We are exploring all possibilities. We are taking all stakeholders, including college principals, faculty and students, in confidence and consulting them. If we succeed in organising this competition for the commerce stream, one-third of the student population will be catered to.”

The rationale behind implementing an entrance examination is that many deserving students do not get admission in several reputed courses and colleges due to low scores in board examinations. Through entrance tests all students will be given a fair chance to prove their mettle. Dr. Manoj Khanna also added that the admission committee is discussing the possibility of conducting an entrance test for Science and Humanities courses too. Furthermore, the University is also assessing how to strengthen infrastructure for online admissions and preparation of entrance tests, with a focus towards evolving a “student friendly” admission system.

Image credits: DU Admissions

Joyee Bhattacharya

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