ABachelor of Commerce (BCom or B Com) is anundergraduate degree incommerce which includes:accounting,taxation, corporate laws or company law, customs law, business law or mercantile law, auditing, Finance, financial management or corporate finance, banking and insurance, income tax law and practice, goods and services tax, economics, computer applications in business, corporate accounting, cost accounting, financial accounting, higher accounting or advanced accounting, statistics, mathematics or business mathematics, andmanagement-related subjects.The degree is mainly offered inCommonwealth nations.
TheBachelor of Commerce degree[1] is designed to provide students with a wide range of managerial skills, while building competence in a particular area of business;[2] see aside listing. For a comparison with other business degrees, seeBusiness education § Undergraduate education.
Most universities, therefore, plan the degree such that in addition to theirmajor, students are exposed to general business principles, taking courses in accounting, finance, economics, business management, human resources and marketing. Programs often require foundational courses inbusiness statistics andmathematics, and information systems.
Depending on the institution, a formalacademic major may or may not be established. Regardless, a Bachelor of Commerce degree[3] requires students to take the majority of their courses in business-related subjects, including the aside, among others.
TheHonours Bachelor of Commerce (HonsBCom or BComm (Hons) or HBCom) is further advanced. The degree has a specialization aspect, analogous to theBBA, developing the student's business skills and/or providing in-depth knowledge of the field.
It requires additional academic courses to be completed, and usually with higher academic performance standards, and may also require a researchedthesis component. It often serves as an abridgement (or entry requirement) between the undergraduate program and postgraduate programs, including theMaster of Commerce (M.Com. or M.Comm.) and theMaster of Business Administration (MBA) degrees.
It may consist of a four-year program[4][5] or of a one-year program taken subsequent to a three-yearBachelor's degree;[6] the one-year program is typically focused exclusively on a single subject-area.[7][8][9]
Thecurriculum generally lasts three years inAustralia,New Zealand,Malta,South Africa, some parts ofCanada, andHong Kong. The curriculum requires four years of study inIndia,Ireland, the majority ofCanada,Egypt,Ghana, thePhilippines, theNetherlands,Sri Lanka andNepal.
InSouth Africa,New Zealand,Australia,Pakistan and some universities inIndia, the BCom (Hons) degree is considered an additionalpostgraduate qualification, whereas inMalta, an additional year of study is not considered a postgraduate qualification.
InPakistan, BCom is generally a 2-year duration degree, whereas BS Commerce, formerly known as BCom (Hons) in the country, is a 4-year duration degree.
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The Bachelor of Commerce degree was first offered at theUniversity of Birmingham. TheUniversity's School of Commerce was founded byWilliam Ashley, an Englishman fromOxford University, who was the first professor of Political Economy and Constitutional History in the Faculty of Arts at theUniversity of Toronto. Ashley left Toronto in 1892, spent a few years atHarvard University, and then went back to England to the new University of Birmingham where he founded the School of Commerce. Ashley began the programme which was the forerunner of many other BCom degree programmes throughout theBritish Empire.
Eighteenth-century economists had divided the English economy into three sectors: agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce. Commerce included the transport, marketing and financing of goods. The Birmingham programme in commerce included economic geography, economic history, general economics, modern languages, and accountancy.
