On the Future of Business Education in Pakistan: A Descriptive Analysis of Courses Included in the Curriculums of Commerce and Business Education

The debate on the value and relevance of commerce versus business administration education is at its full swing in Pakistan. Conventional focus of the commerce education has been on areas like accounting and trade, while business administration education focuses more on areas like management and administration of a business entity. Recently, degrees pertaining to business administration have seen limelight, while commerce degrees have lost their charisma. To some educationists, commerce and business administration domains are mutually exclusive and rise of one necessitates abolition of the other. This study took up this subjective debate to provide a starting point for an objective dialogue on improvement/ abolition of commerce education. The nature of the study was descriptive, as it analysed the courses included in the curriculum of three eminent universities for their undergraduate commerce and business administration programs. It was found that there are many differences between these two domains of knowledge, where business administration focuses more on the soft skills, marketing and social science subjects and commerce focuses more on accounting, finance, taxation and auditing. This study also identifies a need to improve curriculum of commerce education, rejects the idea of its abolition, suggests that the curriculum of commerce be aligned with the demands of the society, and also recommends that commerce education be integrated with the professional accounting associations.