'Course Same, Only Name Changed': St. Xavier's College Mumbai Renames 'BMS' Program

Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College has decided to rename its much sought-after course Bachelor in Management Studies (BMS) to BCom (Management Studies). The renamed course will be offered to students starting this academic year. The name change has been initiated to prevent the course from getting under the All-India Council of Technical Education’s (AICTE) ambit.

Rajendra Shinde, the principal of St Xavier’s College, said, “The syllabi under the course will remain the same and only the name has been changed.” 

The AICTE, earlier in December, released a notification that brought management courses along with computer application courses, including BMS, BCA and BBA, under its radar. The colleges offering these courses required additional approval from AICTE. Additionally, the AICTE also released a new approval process handbook that requires colleges to meet certain criteria for approval. Some of the rules under AICTE guidelines are a teacher-student ratio of 1:25 for BMS courses and additional infrastructural requirements. 

Shinde added that AICTE’s requirements for these courses are extremely stringent which is why they have opted for the name change.

“BMS is already an established course in this college. We bring in a lot of industry experts as guest lecturers for this course which will not be allowed under AICTE’s regulations. The whole idea of industry exposure will then take a backseat,” Shinde highlighted. 

He added that presently, the college has only three permanent faculty for BMS and several guest lecturers; however, if the college were to come under AICTE’s wing, they would require the college to fill the required teacher-student ratio.  

Mumbai University has also passed the resolution allowing the name change of courses in their academic council.