Business Studies and its Plight in Current Scenario

Business studies have always been the most preferred program since ages due to various highlights and also because of its very nature.  All other fields of education are incomplete without the knowledge of doing the business and its management. This further gets manifested when a graduate from technical or any service related field gets further education in business management, entrepreneurship or leadership.

Over the period, business studies have lost the real purpose of preparing the learners for the challenges there in the market.  It has become mere form of meeting the required credits by completing the set of assignments/ presentations/ and other assessments which ultimately leads to a degree. The interesting question here is to see if the degree is good enough for the bachelor to get absorbed in the business world. Why does a business graduate after spending 4 years start as a fresher in the company? Why the company does spend so much on training the graduate initially before he could positively be absorbed and fits into the role? There’s one more reality I would like to mention here that during the time of internship, it has been seen that no difference prevail in the IQ or the skillset between the pursuing graduate and the graduate. 

Filling the Gaps through Re-imagining the Process of the Curriculum 

It’s time to think over the entire business studies curriculum and redesign it which can fill the evident gaps. The NEP could be a game changer if interpreted and implemented rightly by the universities and private institutes. Experiential learning is talked about by all the Business schools, in fact by all the universities irrespective of the programs being offered.  Nevertheless, we know the importance of learning by doing, yet it has not been practiced in real sense. We talk about internships, case study analysis, and simulation and pitch your business.  On the name of internship, most of the schools offer 6 to 8 weeks training. I have been talking to interns for years on the efficacy of such trainings and the truth is known to all. I suggest that the length of the internship should be at least 6 months and where the intern gets enough time to understand the process and make an informed decision about the career path he/she will choose. The learner spends the entire semester in the class understanding the basic concepts and clearly there’s no enough practical exposure.  If both theory and practical are not weaved together, the outcome may not be what is desired.   

Industry-academia collaboration is the need of the hour and the system has observed the importance of it long ago. Fetching such collaboration with industries is challenging since not all are game for entertaining fresher and doing their bit to give it back to the community. The system has to be built in a way where there’s a compulsory marriage between the industry and the university/institute.  This could even be in the form of work study mode which focuses learning by doing.  The typical classroom teaching has to be flipped over by an engaging and real time discussions and activities. The work study mode must be enabled in a way that one can manage both the class room learning and practical training at the industry. It’s time we walk the talk and put the ideas to implementation.  The willingness to make thing happen along with the supportive eco system would definitely change the way the Business Studies and its importance is apprehended in context to employability and problem solving. 

The country has been focussing on start-ups with many initiatives been taken at macro level. There have been accelerators and other consultancy firms who provide assistance to the start-up ventures. There could be a strong tie up between such accelerators/consultancy firms with the universities and the institutes who could supply man-power and also the intellect from the resources they have. Such an arrangement comes with mutual benefit and the learner gets an opportunity to experience the real hardships of the business from the scratch.   

About the Author:

 

Anita Sharma, Associate Dean and Professor. Prof. (Dr.) Anita Sharma has worked with Presidency University, School of Management, Bangalore
and prior to that she worked with IITM, New Delhi, and K.R Mangalam University, Gurgaon. She has been into teaching and research for the past 14 years.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha