Introduction:

Expectations of businesses and industries are changing very fast and therefore the conventional B Com programme should also change to cater to the changing needs. Conventional watertight compartmentalization of Arts / Commerce / Science is not going to offer the required skill sets to people to face the changing business environment.

Whether one is self-employed or having a job, only domain knowledge is not enough in today’s world. One needs to think out of the box, develop critical thinking, negotiation skills, an exposure to national and international events, and also an awareness of a varied aspects of society and culture.

Considering these factors Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce introduced Liberal Arts Programme in 2006. For this purpose, Symbiosis Centre for Liberal Arts was established. The ‘Liberal Arts’ programme was well received by the students as an ‘Add On’ diploma or certificate. This interdisciplinary component was then integrated into the ‘Degree with Honorous Programme’ offered by our college 2012-13 after the College received the Autonomous Status.

The college now proposes to integrate more courses offered by the ‘Centre for Liberal Arts’ into the main stream B Com programme and thus creating a new programme to be named as B Com (Interdisciplinary). By opting for this programme a student will have an opportunity to differentiate oneself in this competitive world, and also will have an added advantage to pursue higher studies. The college believes that this programme will lead to a holistic development of the student’s personality in the true sense, thus making him industry and profession ready.

Structure:

• This is an ‘Embedded Programme’ on regular B Com programme.
• The B Com (Interdisciplinary) programme shall begin from First Year of Graduation
• However, the student will get the specialization subject for the B Com Graduate degree at the time of admission into the Second Year of Graduation as per the prevailing system of merit and preference from the following subjects of specialization viz:
  1. Banking and Finance,
  2. Business Entrepreneurship,
  3. Costing
  4. Human Resources Management,
  5. Marketing Management
• A student of B Com (Interdisciplinary) will also be eligible for the Degree with Honours programme. The regular programme will be of 132 credits and the ‘Honours Programme’ will be of 148 credits
• However, the option of the B Com (Interdisciplinary) programme is not applicable to the students opting for B. Com Integrated ACCA or vice versa.
• The student pursuing the B Com (Interdisciplinary) Programme will have to take two courses per semester from the list of the courses offered by the Centre for Liberal Arts of our college. Thus, the student will take total 12 courses from the Centre for Liberal Arts in the entire span of 6 semesters of B Com degree programme. The student will choose these two papers from a wide range of subjects from varied fields, such as, music, art, sociology, psychology, literature, etc. All these papers will be of 3 credits.
• To facilitate this, the student will have the liberty to opt out of any two courses in each semester which are offered under the Regular B Com programme.
• Courses of specialisation will be compulsory and these courses cannot be opted out.
• In this programme the student will graduate with the specialisation of one’s choice from the 5 options offered by the college at present, viz. Banking, Costing, Entrepreneurship, Human Resource Management and Marketing.
• The degree will be as B. Com (Interdisciplinary) – Specialisation (Marketing / Costing etc.) and B. Com Honours (Interdisciplinary) – Specialisation (Marketing / Costing etc.)#

Timings:

The classes for the regular courses will happen in the morning as usual. However, for the Liberal Arts courses which are a part of the B Com (Interdisciplinary) Programme, the classes will be held in the afternoon as per the present schedule of Liberal arts.

Fee:

*Subject to approval of the Governing Body

#Subject to the norms of Savitribai Phule Pune University