PU proposes change of MBE to MA, students and academics react

CHANDIGARH: Come Sunday, the Panjab University (PU) syndicate will discuss a change in nomenclature of the Masters in Business Economics (MBE) course being run in four of its affiliated colleges in keeping with a University Grants Commission (UGC) notification.
However, the contentious change from MBE to MA (Business Economics) has been proposed to be implemented only from the session 2016-17 and would not bring any relief to students who have already been admitted in the course this year.On the decision of the university's faculty, these students have been asked by their respective colleges to shift to either M Com or MA (Economics).
After being told that the course is being dissolved, students of the course from DAV College (Sector 10) and GGDSD College (Sector 32) submitted a joint representation (August 13) to the university that the shift to a regular course would affect them adversely.
Principals of these colleges had also written to PU on August 18 suggesting that the nomenclature should be changed to MBA (Business Economics), on the lines of Delhi University. The PU MBE course itself was modeled on the DU course.
While a committee constituted by the PU vice chancellor that met on August 10 recommended that students should be given the option to join M Com or MA (Economics) in place of MBE, with creation of additional seats if needed, it also observed that the delay in taking the decision would affect the career prospective of the students.
The panel has also recommended that all colleges running this course should be allowed to have one unit of M Com in place of one MBE unit from the session 2015-16. It has also proposed the creation of additional seats in MA (Economics) in the current session, if need arises, and change in nomenclature of the course to MA (Business Economics) from the next session.
What colleges said
Principals of DAV and SD College wrote to the university seeking a change in the nomenclature to MBA (Business Economics). They also said that a month after admission, it was not justifiable to ask the students to shift to another course. "Admission to MCom classes is given only to students with a commerce background and, therefore, students of MBE will not be able to pursue MCom as they lack commerce backgrounds. The students with business economics backgrounds may also not be in a position to pursue MA in Economics," DAV principal BC Josan wrote.
Syndicate member's note
According to a note by PU's dean student welfare and member of syndicate, Navdeep Goyal, attached with the August 30 syndicate agenda, "MBE is under the faculty of business management and commerce, so the nomenclature of MA (Business Economics) is ruled out." Mentioning that students have taken admission accepting it a professional course, the note adds that those students who're not interested in the degree of MBA (Business Economics) may be allowed to shift to MA (Economics) or MCom.