Quality of Commerce Education in Indian Universities: An

Empirical Presentation

Dr. Nawab Ali Khan

Professor, Department of Commerce
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (INDIA)
Telephone: +91-571-3261457/2721457
Cell: 09897001457/09358066667
Fax: +91-571-2700831
E-mail: nawabalikhan@indiatimes.com

ABSTRACT

Today, the Indian System of business and commerce education is facing many
challenges arising out of globalization. The challenge of quality of business and
commerce education has many dimensions, e.g. providing adequate physical facilities
and infrastructure, making availability of adequate number of quality teachers,
effectiveness of teaching-learning processes, attainment levels of students, etc.
Besides the need to improve quality of our educational institutions in general, it is
also imperative that an increasing number of them attain world-class standards and, as
such, are internationally recognized for their quality. As compared to international
standards, the Indian institutions (with a few exceptions) are far behind. There is an
urgent need to fill this gap. In India, revamping the moral and intellectual strength of
teaching community should not be delayed further for the bright future of our student
community. On the basis of a sample survey, in the present paper, an attempt has been
made to investigate the quality of business and commerce education imparted by
Indian Universities. Consequently, formulation of a long-range strategy has been
suggested to achieve excellence in business and commerce education through quality
teaching.

Key Words: Conventional, Pedagogical, Infrastructure, Specialization, Curriculum.

Acknowledgement: The author acknowledges the logistical support provided by the

Department of Commerce, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.
INTRODUCTION

Business education or commerce education is that area of education which

develops the required knowledge, skills and attitudes for the successful handling of
trade, commerce and industry. Till yester years, commerce education is business
education. But, in tune with the needs of the business and society, independent
professions have emerged in the form of chartered accountant, cost and works
accountant, company secretary and business administrator (M.B.A.). Thus, the cream
of commerce has gone and it remained now as an academic discipline giving general
and liberal education. Commerce Education in India was started in 1886, over a
hundred and twenty years ago. Since then it has experienced tremendous growth.
Commerce faculties are established in many Universities (Reddy: 2007).

The impact of globalization on the corporate sector in particular has suddenly

created a demand for human resource trained in the field of commerce education with
innovative ideas, new approaches in commerce and behavioural sciences as well as
professional skills. In order to fill the vacuum in this regard, a new and futuristic
orientation requires to be given to the discipline of commerce education. At the
outset, it would be worthwhile to mention that the conventional commerce education
has become irrelevant in the present era of globalization.

Keeping in mind the significance of modern commerce and business

education, the Indian government has liberalized its market since 1990s, resulting in
an unprecedented growth in the number of technical and management institutions,
mostly through private investment. The students now have a vast choice regarding the
institutions in which they want to study. Since the management graduates and post-
graduates produced by these institutions are primarily absorbed by the industry, there
is a growing need to match the curriculum and structure of commerce and business
education to better satisfy the requirements of the industrial and services sectors
within the country. Therefore, it is important to properly assess the quality of business
or commerce education imparted to the students in various government/private

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institutions and universities for proper decision-making regarding selection and
recruitment by potential employers.
The challenges of quality in business and commerce education have many
dimensions, e.g. providing adequate physical facilities and infrastructure, making
available adequate number of teachers of requisite quality, effectiveness of teaching-
learning processes, attainment levels of students, etc. It is against this backdrop that,
on the basis of a sample survey, the present paper attempts to investigate the quality
of business and commerce education imparted by the Department of Commerce,
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh after the implementation of UGC revised
Curriculum in the year 2002-03. It is worthwhile to mention here that Department of
Commerce not only runs traditional commerce courses like Bachelor of Commerce,
and Master of Commerce but also Master of Finance & Control (MFC), Master of
Tourism Administration (MTA) PG Diploma in Banking, Risk & Insurance
Management (BRIM), PG Diploma in Business Finance and PG Diploma in
Taxation.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
There are many studies conducted on commerce education by the researchers
in India and abroad. The following is a brief review of some recent researches done in
the field of commerce education:

Paperman and Chandra (1983) emphasized that the students should be sent to
the business houses for on the job training to supplement the class room teaching. It
will provide the students valuable training. Moreover, the interning business will also
be benefited by having bright students for a limited period of time and helping to
assess the suitability of the interns for full employment.

Rust and Oliver (1984) in their study provided three dimensions of model for
measurement of service quality universally across the service which is widely known
as expectation model.

Khairoowala et. al. (2002) felt it imperative on the part of commerce

educationists to understand the need of the market by imparting commerce education

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in a realistic manner with a practical touch through better linkages between
Universities and the Industry. They also stated that the importance of commerce
education in the next millennium will depend upon the changes that are made today,
taking a broader view of near future.

Choudhry (2003) has emphasized on the necessity to redesign the skill

oriented and job oriented courses in commerce with new nomenclatures. He felt if the
courses are designed as per the requirements and the students are trained on these
lines, then courses will become relevant and product saleable. For that, there should
be a survey of requirements of business and industry in terms of nature of courses and
number of graduates.

Ahmad (2004) emphasized for bringing about changes in the system and the
teaching process. In addition to imparting academic knowledge, the student
community must be prepared to meet the challenges confronted in real life and
equipped to solve the problems confronting the business world. This would call for
the restructuring of commerce syllabi at regular intervals. He also felt that in this age
of specialization, commerce education should not continue as a sort of general
education making students jacks of all trades and masters of none.

Sangmi (2005) felt that commerce education came into existence with the
complexities of business and this field of study has been undergoing through turbulent
times throughout its evolution. The millennium challenge of globalization,
liberalization, privatization and information technology have put added pressure on
commerce educational institutions to innovate and change as per changing dynamics
of business environment.

Mishra (2005) focused on post-world war period commerce education and

emphasized e-learning and online education. He also observed that teachers are not
responding in a responsible way while implementing curriculum of commerce
education and emphasized the need of changing mindset of the teaching community.

Mahajan and Shah (2006) concluded that over the last more than a decade or
so, global competition and proliferation of business educational institutions across the
world possess stiff challenges to the business schools in India to produce quality

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products that could cater to the needs of corporate world and withstand the
expectation of different stakeholders of business education.

Reddy (2007) stressed to develop micro specializations which are skill

oriented or job oriented. Besides, he suggested that learned members may take this
opportunity for an objective introspection about the commerce education-its
objectives, its problems, its job potential, its quality and its relevance to the present
day needs of our country.

Rao (2008) also focused on the need of an effective academia industry

relationship to build organic relationships, with sustainable and strategic intent
contributing to the development of both the entities. Industry inputs should be
included as part of curriculum of commerce for improving the quality of output,
which is perceived quite beneficial to both parties.

OBJECTIVES
The present study has been conducted to pursue the following two fold objectives:

1. To study the quality of business and commerce education from students’

point of view; and

2. To offer suggestions and methods for achieving excellence in business and

commerce education.

LIMITATIONS

The main limitation of the present study, which really acted as a hindrance
from going into details of more results is that the sample survey does not deal with the
evaluation of quality of commerce education imparted to students of B.Com. (I). This
is so because of my expectations that these students can not understand and properly
answer the questionnaire.

METHODOLOGY

In the light of the foregoing discussion, this empirical study gauges the
opinions of the students of the Faculty of Commerce, Aligarh Muslim University

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about the quality of teaching with the help of a well designed questionnaire The
students of this Faculty have been chosen purposefully due to the fact that the author
teaches in the said Department.
Out of 705 enrolled students of the said Department, the questionnaire was
administered to 267 students selected through simple random sampling technique at
the Precision Level of +5 per cent on the basis of formula given by Yamane (1967:
886) to calculate sample sizes. Initially, the students were reluctant to fill up the
questionnaires as most of them were apprehensive about their internal assessments
that if they write against the teachers, they might get penalized. Hence, the researcher
called them twice to explain the main points of the questionnaire and also to
convince them to respond fairly and fearlessly on the assurance that their identities
will not be disclosed and their support will help improve the courses and teaching in
the Department in future.
Fortunately, all the randomly selected students replied in time. The researcher
also supplied the respondents the blank sheets to express their observations on the
issues other than those mentioned in the questionnaire. Surprisingly, almost 75 per
cent of the respondents expressed their views about their requirements and
expectations from the teachers. Their views on a number of issues relating to teaching
in the Faculty of Commerce have been compiled in the following table:

ANALYSIS
(Percentages)
How do you find your syllabus?
(a) Excellent 14.29
(b) Cumbersome 9.52
(c) Adequate 64.29
(d) Inadequate 11.90
Total 100.00

What do you feel regarding understanding of your course?

Very easy Manageable Difficult Very difficult Total
19.05 76.19 4.76 - 100.00

The syllabus coverage in the class is :

90 - 100% 75 – 90% 50 – 75% Below 50% Total
38.10 26.19 30.95 4.76 100.00

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Availability of purposeful reading material in the Seminar Library is :
More than Adequate Inadequate No comments Total
adequate
19.05 38.10 30.95 11.90 100.00

Teachers’ preparation for the class lecture is :

Excellent Satisfactory Poor Did not Total
prepare
14.29 76.19 - 9.52 100.00

Communication by your teachers in the class is :

Effective Ineffective Satisfactory No comments Total
39.09 19.05 41.86 - 100.00

Is students’ participation in learning process in the class encouraged by your

Teachers?
Yes Attempted Not at all Some times Total
26.19 4.76 2.38 66.67 100.00

Which method is used for students’ participation in the class rooms?

Encouraged Discussion in Discussion out Discussion Total
question class side class individually
33.33 59.53 - 7.14 100.00

What is the attitude of teacher when you seek advice?

Helpful Unhelpful Sometimes Sometimes Total
helpful unhelpful
42.86 4.76 42.86 9.52 100.00

Teacher’s behavior in the class is :

Courteous Rude Indifferent Strict Total
42.86 9.52 28.57 19.05 100.00

Does the internal assessment work?

Fairly Regularly Helpfully No comments Total
28.57 14.29 19.05 38.09 100.00

How does the internal assessment affect your course grade?

Improves it Lowers it No effect No comments Total
50.00 2.38 23.81 23.81 100.00

When do you get the feedback on your performance from the teacher?
Regularly In time With helpful No comments Total
comments
9.52 11.90 47.62 30.95 100.00

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 Does the Teacher discuss your assignments with you?
Yes, fully Yes, partly Not at all Some times Total
4.76 19.05 38.09 38.09 100.00

Do you get the Lectures Plan of the course from your teacher in advance?
Yes No Some times No comments Total
66.67 33.33 - - 100.00

Do you find the Lecture Plan of the course helpful?

Yes No To some extent No comments Total
71.43 28.57 - - 100.00

Does your teacher follow the Lecture Plan?

Yes No Some times No comments Total
71.43 28.57 - - 100.00

Are lectures from external eminent academicians/experts arranged for you?

Yes, frequently Rarely Never Some times Total
9.52 45.24 45.24 - 100.00

Are you sent on educational/excursion tours outside?

Yes, Annually Rarely Never Some times Total
11.90 4.77 83.33 - 100.00
Source: Questionnaire

EMPIRICAL FINDINGS

From the above noted data it is observed that the feed-back of the students was
taken on a number of aspects for the overall evaluation of teaching of business and
commerce education in the Faculty of Commerce, A.M.U. Aligarh. The respondents
have given divergent views regarding the instruction imparted to them in the Faculty.
On enquiry about syllabus, it was found that 14.29 per cent of the total respondents
found it excellent, 9.52 per cent felt it was cumbersome, 64.29 per cent of the total
students surveyed opined that the syllabus was adequate and only 11.90 per cent
students found it inadequate.

The students were asked if the course was conceptually difficult to understand;
interestingly for 76.19 of the per cent students the course was manageable whereas for

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19.05 of them it was very easy. For 4.76 per cent of the students it was difficult and it
was satisfactory to note that none of the respondents felt it was very difficult.

Regarding the coverage of course 38.10 per cent of the students opined that 90
to 100 per cent of the course was covered in the class. Of the total respondents 30.95
per cent were such who felt that 50 to 75 per cent of the course was covered in class,
26.19 per cent students said that 75 to 90 per cent of syllabus was covered in class and
only 4.76 per cent of the respondents said that course covered was less than 50 per
cent.

The survey reveals that 19.05 per cent of the total respondents are of the
opinion that the availability of purposeful reading materials in the Seminar Library
was more than adequate whereas it was just adequate for 38.10 per cent of the total
respondents. 30.95 per cent students said it was inadequate. Only 11.90 per cent of the
students surveyed said it was very poor.

Another question of the survey was regarding the teachers’ preparation for the
class. It is quite good that 76.19 per cent of the respondents felt that the teachers
prepared for the class up to their satisfaction, 14.29 per cent felt that they prepared
thoroughly for the class, 9.52 per cent of the total respondents felt that they did not
prepare for the class and interestingly none of the respondents felt that their teachers
prepared poorly.

When the respondents were enquired about the communication skills of

teachers, it was found that for 41.86 per cent of total respondents; teachers were able
to communicate satisfactorily, for 39.09 per cent respondents effectively and for 19.05
per cent ineffectively. None of them found the teachers’ communication poor in the
Department.

The respondents were asked about their participation in the class discussion.
It was found that 26.19 per cent of them said that the teachers encouraged students’
participation in class whereas 66.67 per cent opined that sometimes the teachers
encouraged the participation, 4.76 per cent of the respondents said their teachers
attempted participation while, 2.38 per cent of the respondents said that the teachers
did not encourage participation at all.

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 The students were also asked about the method of their participation in the
class. It is important to note that 59.53 per cent respondents opined that their teachers
encouraged discussion in class, 33.33 per cent of them felt that their teachers
encouraged questions in the class while 7.14 per cent of them felt that their teachers
preferred individual discussions for students’ participation in the class.

Another question posed to respondents was about the general behaviour of

teachers. Majority of them (42.86 per cent) felt that the teachers were courteous,
28.57 per cent of them were of view that teachers were indifferent, 19.05 per cent of
total respondents felt that they were strict while 9.52 per cent of total respondents felt
that their teachers were rude.

When the respondents were asked about internal assessment, interestingly

38.09 per cent of the respondents were not able to judge whether the internal
assessment worked or not, for 28.57 per cent it worked fairly, it worked regularly for
14.29 per cent and helpfully for 19.05 per cent of the total respondents. Besides, on
the question whether the internal assessment will improve their course grade, it was
noted that for 50 per cent of the total respondents assured that it really improves, for
23.81 per cent of them it had no effect, 23.81 per cent respondents were not able to
judge but 2.38 per cent of the respondents thought that internal assessment lowers
their grades.

Another question posed to respondents was whether the teachers provided

feedback on the performance. Majority of them (47.62 per cent) were of the opinion
that teachers provided feedback on their performance with helpful comments. Of the
total, 11.90 per cent of the respondents thought that the teachers provided feedback on
their performance in time, 9.52 per cent respondents felt they got it regularly and
30.95 per cent of the respondents did not comment on it. When respondents were
asked about discussion on their assignments, interestingly, 38.09 per cent of them said
that their assignments were not discussed with them at all, the same percentage of
respondents felt it was done intermittently that their assignments were discussed with
them. Of the total 19.05 per cent students opined that their assignments were
discussed with them partly and only 4.76 per cent of them said their assignments were
fully discussed with them in the class.

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 The respondents’ views were taken on whether they were given a course
lecture outline at the beginning? 66.67 per cent of the students opined that they were
provided with the course and lecture outline at the beginning and only 33.33 per cent
of them were of the view that they were not given any such outline. It was observed
that for 71.43 per cent of the respondents the course and lecture outlines were
provided at the beginning and they found it helpful. However, for 28.57 per cent of
them, it was not helpful at all. The same was the response on the enquiry about their
teachers following lecture plans given to them.

The respondents were enquired whether external eminent academicians/

experts were invited to address them? Surprisingly, 45.24 per cent of them stated that
external experts were rarely invited to address them. The same percentage of the
respondents opined that the external experts were not invited to address them even at
the time of their orientation. Only 9.52 per cent of the total respondents opined that
the lectures were frequently arranged from external eminent academicians/ experts.
At the end, it was also enquired, if the Department sends them to visit
industries, business houses, banks and outside the university. It was really shocking
to note that 83.33 per cent of the total respondents said that they were not taken any
where. However, 11.90 per cent of them felt they were sent on education-cum-
industrial tour in final year only while 4.77 per cent of the total respondents said that
they rarely visited any of the aforementioned places.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

On the basis of findings of the study and feed back gathered from the students
and through personal interviews, the researcher wishes to discuss an enthusiastic
collection of thoughts for improving the quality of commerce education. The quality
of education depends on the provision and proper utilization of all necessary physical
facilities for learning. In other words, acquiring knowledge coupled with the ability
for its proper application requires sincere efforts. Over the last 4-5 decades, a
"change" has taken place in the educational scenario. Learners are now more
'demanding', than in the past. They behave like customers in the market. They want
'quality' teachers, rather than authoritative teachers.

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 Coming to the quality in commerce education, it is well known fact that
effective commerce education needs two components, namely, infrastructure
consisting of a good compound, decent and elegant buildings having nicely decorated
class rooms, rich and dependable Seminar Libraries, well equipped computer labs,
modern electronic audio-visual teaching aids etc. to mention a few and of course the
second one is a team of qualified and dedicated teachers. The educational institutions,
which possess both the components, are considered the ideal ones. In case both the
components are not so good, in such cases it is doubtful if the institutions can survive.
(Singh: 1999).

The recruitment of staff members should be based on their academic

performance, specialization and practical experience. To my mind the component of
the qualified and dedicated teachers constitute the vital area to be carefully attended
to. The attempts by various appointing authorities, including the UGC, to recruit
teachers by framing stringent guidelines like possession of consistently good
academic record, holding Ph.D/ M.Phil. Degrees, qualifying the National Eligibility
Test (NET) etc., do not yield the expected results. And ultimately authorities have
miserably failed in developing a mechanism to segregate the dutiful and academic
teachers from the non-academic areas. In fact, the strict guidelines of the UGC do not
guarantee that an appointee will prove to be a good teacher. What is more desirable
is the framing of a set of sufficient conditions, on satisfaction of which a teacher can
be considered for confirmation, increment, promotion or career advancement, more
specifically in centrally funded institutions.

Evaluation of a teacher in service in respect of his academic accountability

ought to be done in the same way as it is done all over the world. Students Feed Back
about a teacher's regularity, effectiveness in teaching and attitude towards them
should be taken at regular intervals from all the classes engaged by that particular
teacher. Besides, self assessment of a teacher should also be done periodically to
make him/her a more responsible and sincere teacher. Those, whose performance is
found satisfactory, must be promoted in due course of time. However, guilty must be
given some chance to improve. Needless to say that there are always chances of
improvement as most of the defaults on the part of teachers are just because of

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dullness and lethargy. Punitive action should be contemplated but only in unavoidable
and exceptional cases.

Chadha’s Committee on Sixth Pay Commission has recommended that the

teachers should be encouraged to participate in consultancy services. The researcher
also stands by this recommendation as it will keep them in touch with real problems
and to bring to bear their specialized knowledge to the solution of practical problems
faced by the business world. Such an arrangement would be of mutual advantage; as
also beneficial to the student body who will get familiarized with the handling of case
studies to make their academic pursuits more realistic and meaningful.

It is worthwhile to mention that commerce education cannot be compared with

studying other subject areas like chemistry, physics, mathematics or law etc.
Commerce education can rather be compared with medicine. No doctor is allowed
near a patient purely on the basis of theoretical knowledge. Doctors learn the
professional skills by acquiring the practical knowledge that is taught by practicing
doctors and hence they become experts in diagnosing the real physical conditions of
the patients. In the similar way, in a business scenario also you have to do things, take
decisions, take actions, and monitor results. Hence, the specialization is the need of
the hour to achieve excellence in imparting commerce education. It is also desirable
that the Commerce Laboratories be set up in the Faculties of Commerce of the
universities. Besides, the teachers should be allowed to specialize in the subjects of
their choice and the practice of assigning of many subjects to a teacher and changing
them after every two or three years arbitrarily should be abandoned forthwith.

In fine, it may be safely deduced that the teachers are envisaged to be a special
breed of people. They not only have high academic qualifications, but are also
Masters or Gurus of the ideas they discuss. The thing which really makes them special
is the ability to teach and communicate in a very effective way. It is worthwhile to
mention here that Indian universities and degree colleges (with a few exceptions) are
far behind as compared to international standards. The need of the hour is to fill this
gap. In India, revamping the moral and intellectual strength of teaching community is
a programme not to be delayed further for the bright future of our student community.

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If it is not done, the time may come when the students may dictate what to learn, how
to learn and from whom to learn. It is a welcome trend if it helps in the making of
'good and honourable' citizens.

REFERENCES

Ahmad, M. M. (2004). Business Education – Retrospect and Prospects. Current

Economic Issues. Aligarh Muslim University Press, pp. 93-103.

Choudhry, P.T. (2003). Linkage of Commerce Education with Industries. Indian

Commerce Bulletin Kottayam, Vol. viii, No.1, Jun. pp. 52-57.

Khairoowala, Z.U., Siddiqui, Saif, and Mustafa Shaikh S.M. (2002). Commerce
Education in India-Problems and Prospects. Indian Journal of Business Papers, Patna
University, Patna, Vol. 2 & 3, Dec.-June, No. 4 & 5, pp. 76-81.

Mahajan K. A. and Shah, Meiraj-uddin (2006). Service Quality in Business

Education. Indian Journal of Commerce, Vol. 59, No. 3, July-Sep. pp. 246-256.

Mishra, S.S. (2005). Panel Discussion on Commerce Education: Integrating with

Emerging Technology. 58th All India Commerce Conference, organized on 27th Dec.
2005 at Varanasi.

Paperman, Jacob, B. and Chandra, Gyan (1983). Accounting Internships: An Aid to

Recruiting. Applied Business Administration, Quarterly, pp. 8-12.

Rao, G. Tulsi (2008). University Industry Interface with reference to Commerce

Education. Indian Journal of Commerce, Vol. 61, No. 4, pp.248-253.

Reddy (2007). Revitalizing Commerce Education. Journal of Commerce, Vidyasagar

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Rust Roland and Oliver, Richard L. (1984). Service Quality Insights and Implications
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Sangmi, Mohiuddin (2005). Commerce Education in the new Millennium: Challenges

and Opportunities. Business Peep, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 1-5.

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Singh, H. Jayantakumar (1999). A Holistic Approach to the Problems of Education in
India particularly in the State of Manipur. Paper presented at the National Seminar
on the Improvement of Education System in Manipur held at Kumbi College, Manipur
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Yamane, Taro (1967). Statistics, An Introductory Analysis. 2nd Ed. New York : Harper
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