BBA vs BBM – Choosing the Best One

Everything about BBA

The BBA course 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 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 gain 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
• 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, those who have completed one year of graduation course or those have completed their 10 + 2 with more than 70% marks.
• There are some universities which 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 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 gain a 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 and Marketing, Operations Management, Logistics, and Supply Chain, Information Systems, Oil and Gas (recent), Start-up and 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 centred around the sectors of Finance and Banking, IT and Software development technical or sales, E-commerce, and Internet, Logistics,  International Marketing, Real Estate, New technologies like cloud computing, data centres.

Everything about BBM

Also known as Bachelor of Business Management(BBM), this is a graduate course of 3 years that specializes in all 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 and course content

The course syllabus 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 focussing on subjects like strategic management, international trade and 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 managers, industrial relations officers.

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 get exposed to corporate sector working styles at an earlier age as compared to MBA's which is a postgraduate course.

BBA vs BBM - Which is the better option?

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.

However, in spite of this, there are subtle variations both in terms of the syllabus and overall student registrations.

The BBA is considered more as a precursor for an MBA. Going by statistics and 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 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 mild edge to BBA students to take up real-life roles.

In terms of specializations, BBM might have an edge, but as far as job openings are concerned, then BBA graduates have more options.

There is a number of universities offering 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 one that you find more interesting, only then can you love it and pursue it to fulfil your career dreams.