In another attempt to involve the industry in redesigning the undergraduate curriculum to include the latest technologies, Bharathiar University and Tata Consultancy Services have come up with a paper called “Finance and Accounting for Business Process” to be offered to commerce students studying in affiliated colleges of the university.
This will be a value-addition to the papers offered under the regular curriculum of the colleges and will be included in the academic stream from this academic year. The Centre for Excellence for Accounting and Finance of TCS prepared the ‘Information Technology-based commerce curriculum’ incorporating the latest practical inputs prevalent in commerce-based industries.
The colleges, which choose to offer this paper to the students who wish to take it up, can do so in the manner that is best suited to them. As a pilot launch, eight autonomous and five non-autonomous colleges have been identified to implement the paper. It is meant for B.Com., B.Com (CA), BBM, and BBM (CA) students.
According to M. Jayakumar, Director, Department of Extension and Career Guidance, Bharathiar University, there are 10 units in the paper that the college will offer in a staggered manner, over two or three semesters.
“Three workshops were held with representatives from TCS and faculty from the departments of commerce of various colleges, attending them. Industry and institutions deliberated upon and drew up a final set of curricula that can be delivered in 75 hours. However, each college can choose the mode and time of delivery because the content is practical in nature and of a standard that is above that of the normal undergraduate curriculum,” he said.
TCS would train teachers of the selected colleges in delivering the content. The trained teachers would take classes for the interested students after college hours. A separate examination for these students would be held.
Karunai Athal A., Head, Department of Commerce, PKR Arts College for Women, Gobichettipalayam, who attended the curriculum wrap-up meeting in the university on Tuesday, said all 10 topics were unique and practical in nature.
“They have incorporated the emerging trends that will be very useful to students because the normal curriculum text books are mostly theory-based. As a beginning, we plan to offer the paper to selective students. May be from the next year, we can suggest it for all the commerce students. Depending on the students’ ability to grasp the concepts, the hours of class will be made flexible,” she said.
Explaining the uniqueness of the paper, S. Poornima, Associate Professor, Department of Business Management, PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore, said the content was IT-oriented, systems-based and did not involve hand-written entries.
“It is updated, very in-depth and covers every business aspect. To begin with, the college is planning to offer it from September for the third year students and also the second years. After a trial period, we will decide on the delivery modalities,” she said.
The 10-module paper was the first in a series of papers that the university and the corporate plan to include as value-additions to the existing commerce curriculum at the UG level.
