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About the Department

The Department of Commerce of the University of Burdwan started functioning from the academic session, 1963-65. The classes for the first batch of students started from February 1964 though classes in other departments started from November, 1963. The Department had a faculty of three teachers and two non-teaching employees when it started functioning. In the first batch there were about 60 students. At that time commerce education at the undergraduate level was not very popular. B.Com. Honours Course was taught only in a few colleges. B.Com. Pass Course (now called General Course) was taught in most of the colleges which had affiliation in commerce. Starting from this situation the objective of the newly set up Department of Commerce was to promote the spread of commerce education not only at the post graduate level but also at the undergraduate level.

To cope with the growth of students at the undergraduate level the intake capacity of postgraduate department was increased at stages. An evening section for employed students was introduced in the 1970’s. But the evening section had to be discontinued in the 1980’s due to lack of employed students. However, the intake capacity of the day section continued to increase. Moreover P.G. Course had also been started at Hooghly Mohsin College. At present the intake capacity of P.G. Department of Commerce is 118 and that of Hooghly Mohsin College is 50. Besides, the M.Com. Course is also offered in the distance mode by the Directorate of Distance Education (DDE) of the university. The faculty members of the Department provide active support to DDE in running the P.G. programme in Commerce in the distance mode. The semester system has been introduced in the M.Com. Course for regular students while in the distance mode annual examination system (Part I and Part II) prevails. Apart from the M.Com. Course the Department also offers M.Phil. programme to the students. The intake capacity in the M.Phil. programme is now 15. It is now a two-year course of which the first year is devoted to course work while the second year is devoted to writing a dissertation. The department also offers Ph.D programme in Commerce.

Apart from the promotion of commerce education the Department also took an active part in the promotion of management education. In the 1980’s the Department took initiative in starting an M.B.A. Course. Faculty members of the Department played leading role in preparatory activities for the starting of the M.B.A. programme. The classes in the first batch of M.B.A. students were held in the Department of Commerce and many teachers of the Department used to take regular classes in the M.B.A. programme. Later on a separate department of business administration was set up by the university which was given the responsibility of running the M.B.A. programme. Another initiative of the Department in the 1980’s was to start a one year postgraduate diploma programme in industrial relations and personnel management (PGDIRPM) with the approval of the U.G.C. The course was recognized by the Ministry of Labour, Govt. of India and also by the Govt. of West Bengal. This programme was later upgraded to two-year MBA(HR) programme. At present this MBA(HR) programme is being run by MBA(HR) Department under the Centre for Management Studies. In addition, on the initiative of the Department the University of Burdwan has entered into an MOU with Acclaris Business Solutions Private Limited to establish BUACKLab, a BPO academy.

In the past the Department offered specialization in Accounting, Banking and Currency, Labour Economics and Management. However the main emphasis was on Accounting and Control group. At present the Department offers dual specialization either in Accounting and Finance or in Accounting and Marketing. The dual specialization helps the students to get wider scope while searching for jobs.