Bachelor of Commerce

A Bachelor of Commerce, often abbreviated as BCom or BComm, is an undergraduate degree in commerce. The degree is also known as the Bachelor of Commerce and Administration, or BCA. It is predominantly offered in Commonwealth nations.

Structure

Curriculum

The degree is designed to provide the student with a wide range of managerial skills while at the same time building competence in a particular area. Most universities therefore plan the degree such that additional to their major, the student is exposed to general business principles, quantitative analysis, case studies and organizational behaviour. The curriculum thus focuses both on academic subjects, such as statistics, mathematics and economics, as well as practical business subjects, such as accountancy, law, management, marketing, finance, etc. Cooperative education programs are also common.

Duration

The precise requirements for the degree vary, and the course structure tends to vary in different countries. The curriculum generally lasts three years in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malta, South Africa, the United States of America, parts of Canada and the United Kingdom, and four years in majority of Canada, Republic of Ireland, Ghana, Pakistan, Philippines and the Netherlands. In South Africa, and some universitites in India, many students extend their studies to a fourth "Honours" year ("B.Com. (Hons.)" - an additional postgraduate qualification), usually focused exclusively on one subject.

Further study

A BCom graduate may pursue the Master of Commerce, or other post-graduate masters programs such as the Master of Finance (MFin), Master of Accounting (MAcc), Master in Business Administration (MBA). The degree is usually recognised by the various professional accounting bodies, and graduates often therefore pursue accounting designations such as the Chartered Accountant (CA), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified General Accountant (CGA), or Financial qualifications such as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Areas of study

Depending on the institution, a formal academic major may or may not be established. Regardless, the Bachelor of Commerce requires a student to take the majority of their courses in business-related subjects, namely the following and others depending on the student's particular interest.

Accounting Actuary Business Ethics Banking Communications Computers and Management Information Systems

Decision analysis Economics Econometrics Electronic commerce Entrepreneurship Finance and financial markets

Government Human resources Industrial psychology Labor relations Law Management

Management science Marketing Mathematics Operations Management Organizational studies Politics and Public Policy

Risk management / Financial risk management Strategic management Statistics Taxation

History

The Bachelor of Commerce degree was first offered at the University of Birmingham. The University's School of Commerce was founded by William Ashley, an Englishman from Oxford University, who was the first Professor of Political Economy and Constitutional History in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Toronto. Ashley left Toronto in 1892, spent a few years at Harvard University and then went back to England to the new University of Birmingham where he founded the School of Commerce and began the program - the forerunner of many BCom degree programs throughout the British Empire. Eighteenth-century economists had divided the English economy into three sectors: agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce. Commerce included the transportation, marketing, and financing of goods. The Birmingham program included economic geography, economic history, general economics, modern languages, and accountancy.

See also

• Master of Commerce

• Bachelor of Accountancy, a specialised accountancy degree
• Bachelor of Business
• Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)
• Bachelor of Business Science
• Bachelor of Economics
• Bachelor of Public Administration (BPA)

• Business school
• Business schools listed by country