Everything about BBA
BBA course, which is also known as Bachelor of Business Administration, is a three-year course similar to other graduate courses in terms of its duration. The minimum eligibility for admission to the course is 10 + 2 or equivalent.
The course is also sometimes known as Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS), Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS) which has almost the same course curriculum and contents. The BBA course can be pursued as a full time or a part-time course. In the event of the latter, the duration in some of the universities might get extended to 4 years. There is also an option of pursuing this as a correspondence course, but fewer people take up this option since their interactive studies and case studies are an extensive part of the course contents.
The course can again be classified on the basis of BBA (General) and BBA (Pass). The former has a course combination of several subjects which can be opted for with only one or two compulsory subjects. These selective combinations and specializations are different as per the syllabus of different BBA colleges in India.
The students who wish to appear for BBA require a minimum 45% passing marks in their 10 + 2 exams. The admission is through an objective-type entrance test which is a combination of English language, quantitative aptitude and reasoning ability. However, this test is not mandatory for those who have passed the Under Graduate Aptitude Test (UGAT) with a 500 or more test score, and also those who have completed one year of graduation course or those who have completed their 10 + 2 with more than 70% marks.
There are some universities that offer a combined 5-year course of BBA and MBA which is known as the Integrated MBA. The students can join for the same after passing their 10 + 2 exams.
Course suitability
The course is ideally suited for all those aspiring students who are practically attuned to facing business challenges in the corporate world and the business sector.
Those who are good at decision-making and deal-conclusions can also opt for this course. Those who have an aptitude for running a small scale business or start-up venture can gun for a BBM course.
There are job profiles that are a combination of hard skills and soft skills like project manager or technical operations managers which is again a good option for pass outs of BBA.
Course content and job opportunities
BBA typically consists of a combination of commerce, economics, business management, and human resource subjects.
The specialization has different subjects like Finance, Sales & Marketing, Operations Management, Logistics & Supply Chain, Information Systems, Oil & Gas (recent), Start-up & Entrepreneur Management, Information Systems, Retail Management, and Channel Distribution.
In fact, the specialization subjects are added as per the industry demands and requirements.
The job openings in BBA is centered around the sectors of Finance & Banking, IT & Software Development Technical or Sales, E-commerce & Internet, Logistics, International Marketing, Real Estate, New technologies like Cloud Computing, Data Centers, etc.
Everything about BBM
Also known as Bachelor of Business Management (BBM), this is a graduate course of 3 years’ duration which specializes in all the practical and theoretical aspects of the business. The main objective of the course is to familiarize the student with the world of business management and to prepare them for the necessary management and leadership skills.
The course examinations are mostly semester-based with 2 examinations in a year.
Subject & Course Content
The course syllabus of BBM is a combination of B.com, Economics, Law, and Statistics with several general subjects. There are new additions to the syllabus as per the requirements of the corporate sector.
The course is not just subject-oriented and teaches all new practices and techniques prevailing in the business sector and the modern corporate world.
Apart from focusing on subjects like strategic management, international trade &finance, human resources, marketing management, operations, and logistics, the course develops students for analytical, logical and practical reasoning skills.
Job Opportunities
There are many job openings in the corporate sector that welcome BBS graduates and some of the good universities also arrange select campus interviews.
The students can take up varied roles as marketing managers, operational managers, product specialists, brand and communications specialist, materials and operations manager, industrial relations officer.
There are job profiles that are a combination of hard skills and soft skills like solution architects in IT system integration companies.
Another big advantage is that students of BBM get exposed to corporate sector working styles at an earlier age as compared to MBA’s which is a postgraduate course.
BBA vs BBM – Choose which appeals to you
There are many similarities between BBA and BBM in terms of syllabus and course contents as well as job opportunities and job profiles. In fact, to differentiate the two courses would be trying to locate a needle in a haystack, so to say.
However, in spite of this, there are subtle variations both in terms of the syllabus and overall student registrations.
The BBA course is considered more as a precursor for an MBA degree. Going by statistics, it can be said that BBA has a slight edge over BBM in terms of preparing for a CAT MBA course.
The BBM syllabus is more oriented towards the theoretical aspects of management techniques while the BBA course curriculum is more structured towards supervisory and managerial roles in the corporate sector. This gives a modest edge to BBA students to take up real-life roles.
In terms of specializations, BBM might have an edge, but as far as on job openings are concerned, then BBA graduates have more options.
There are a number of universities offering the BBA undergraduate courses, as compared to BBM. The gap is not very wide, but it is a clear indication that BBA holds a slight edge.
But, while choosing a stream of your choice, it is always worthwhile to remember that you must always go for the one that you find more interesting; only then can you love it and pursue it to fulfill your career dreams.