BMS is now BCom (Management Studies) in most city colleges

MUMBAI: Most Mumbai University-affiliated colleges offering a Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) course have decided to opt for the change in nomenclature from BMS to BCom (Management Studies). Accordingly, they will admit students based on their Class 12 marks rather than CET scores.

Mumbai University will allow colleges that choose to continue with the old name of BMS to do so, but with the approval of the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). Admissions on CET scores will be applicable to these colleges. According to sources, only 10 or 12 colleges in the city will continue offering the ‘BMS’ degree.

The university last week issued a circular to all its colleges about the change in the name of the degree in the wake of requests put forth by several affiliated colleges which were reluctant to follow AICTE regulations. As per the mandate of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, AICTE regulates all professional courses in the country.

Lala Lajpatrai College of Commerce and Economics has, interestingly, chosen to run both BMS and BCom (Management Studies) courses. Academic dean Neelam Arora said the institute would admit a batch of 120 students under each course. “For BMS, we will consider CET scores,” she said.

Hinduja College of Commerce, an autonomous minority college with A+ NAAC accreditation in south Mumbai, has three divisions of BMS. Dr Minu Madlani, principal of the college says, “It is one of our most popular programmes which students aspire to pursue. We also have BBA in Digital Business.” She also informed that they will be continuing with AICTE BMS.

St Xavier’s College has decided to go with BCom (Management Studies). “We are conducting our own CET for admission to the course,” said principal Rajendra Shinde. “We had also registered our college for AICTE approval but after Mumbai University’s decision, we withdrew our application and decided to go with the new nomenclature. The change in name will not affect the quality of the course.”

T A Shiware, president of the Mumbai College Principals Federation, said that in a recent meeting with principals, most colleges affiliated with Mumbai University decided to go with the new nomenclature. “Running BMS courses under AICTE norms is very difficult in rural areas,” he said.

In April, the Mumbai College Principals Federation had written to the state government, seeking changes in the nomenclature of professional courses like BMS, Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA). This request came after an AICTE notice that aimed to bring the BBA, BMS and BCA programmes under its jurisdiction from the new academic year.

Almost all universities in the state offering BMS have also decided to change the nomenclature to safeguard themselves from AICTE approval. However, KC and HR Colleges, which come under HSNC University, have decided to offer BMS.

“We have got approval from AICTE for our BMS courses,” said Hemlata Bagala, vice-chancellor of HSNC University. “From the coming academic year, we are also increasing our intake capacity of BMS by 120 seats each in KC College and HR College.” With this addition, the total number of BNS seats in the university will exceed 600. In addition, HSNC has decided to offer scholarships to students from the North-East parts of the country.

As per the data of the Common Entrance Test (CET) cell, 56,748 students registered for the CET of BCA/BBA/BMS/BBM courses. On Wednesday, 48,135 students appeared for the first ever common entrance test (CET) for various unaided self-financed courses, including BMS.