Cafeteria Approach

Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies, Pune formerly introduced as 'Symbiosis BBA' was officially inaugurated on July 12, 2004. What followed was a journey of discovery, excitement and activities that has taken us one step ahead in our continuous quest for excellence.

The BBA programme, since its inception in 2004, has been evolving in response to the learning from our experiences and in response to the changing environment and industry requirements. The note below takes you through this process of evolution and also highlights that the process of curriculum development is dynamic and as such, the programme content is always updated and relevant to the real world requirements.

In the year of 2004, the institute offered only one programme i.e. the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) with a fixed structure. The following batches 2004-07, 2005-08 and 2006 -09 had followed the pattern of fixed structure of BBA. This approach was to keep the programme broad based and offered the same courses to all students of the batch.

The changing environment in Education led SCMS, Pune to think beyond general BBA. Therefore the institute has offered three specialization streams to choose from; which are Corporate Management, Accounting & Finance, and International Business. The batches which had followed the three specialized streams pattern were 2007-10. 2008-11, 2009-12 and 2010-13. The first year contained courses which was common to all students. Thereafter, from the second year, students were allowed to choose from the above streams as per their academic performance and area of interest. This allowed students to zero-in on their interest area and choose courses from a domain of their interest. While it gave them a taste of a particular domain, they still had the freedom to explore other areas at work or when they pursued any post graduate programme.

In response to the call of the country's environmental and employment landscape, we felt the need to expand the study of Entrepreneurship and Environmental Management from merely two courses to a set of courses that would lead to a specialization. Hence these two additional streams were introduced from the Academic year 2011-12.

The Current Design

Cafeteria curriculum expands on the creative process that exists outside the rational mind. It focuses on the overall development of the student and appreciates that at the UG level, the curriculum should not be too focused or strait-jacketed. It combines the benefits of all the programme designs that we had followed until then.

Our BBA Honours / Honours with Research programme currently provides a framework such that a student can choose from the basket of courses of different specializations offered under BBA Honours / Honours with Resear. The Cafeteria curriculum has been designed to allow flexibility to the students to take up courses of their choice. Thus it permits a student to design one's own curriculum and keep it as broad based or as specialized as he/she would like it to be.

The Institute follows a cafeteria curriculum which was successfully launched from the Academic Year 2011-12. The cafeteria approach will encourage and allow students to choose elective courses from across various specializations. The Institute offered cafeteria curriculum with five specializations from Academic year 2011-12:

Corporate Management
International Business
Accounting and Finance
Environmental Management
Entrepreneurship

Taking a cue from our recruiters, from the Academic Year 2012-13, Corporate management further split into Human Resource Management and Marketing Management

Human Resource Management
Marketing Management
International Business
Accounting and Finance
Environment Management
Entrepreneurship

The cafeteria curriculum design aligns with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and implements a flexible, multidisciplinary framework across Batch 2023-27 and Batch 2024- 28. It featured seven Specializations with clearly defined Major and Minor tracks for successive cohorts, establishing a consistent designation of Major/Minor across both batches.

Marketing Management (Major/Minor)
Human Resource Management (Major/Minor)
Accounting and Finance (Major/Minor)
International Business (Major/Minor)
Entrepreneurship (Major/Minor)
Sustainability Studies and Environment Management (Minor)
Business Analytics (Minor)

The current cafeteria design aligns with the National Education Policy, 2020, which is effective for batches 2025-29. SCMS offers the following specialisations-

Marketing Management (Major/Minor)
Human Resource Management (Major/Minor)
Accounting and Finance (Major/Minor)
International Business (Major/Minor)
·Business Analytics (Major/Minor)
Sustainability Studies and Environment Management (Minor)
Entrepreneurship (Minor)

Apart from the basic and specialized curriculum, SCMS, Pune provides an opportunity to select students to go abroad under Global Immersion programme (GIP) for Semester exchange, Summer school, Study tour and Service learning. This activity had been initiated by SCMS in consultation with SCIE and as per SIU given guidelines. Under this initiative, the students get an opportunity to study abroad at our Partner Universities of their choice. The SCMS, Pune students may attend summer schools which usually last for two to four weeks in duration and are normally held in spring or summer. Semester IV is identified as GIP semester. In today's globalized world such exposure at the UnderGraduate level is pertinent to shape the young generation to become better global citizens.

The ultimate aim of the institute is always to empower its students with a sound knowledge base, to stimulate in students an interest in research, inculcation of values, overall development through cultural and sports activities and provide an environment that is conducive to learning.

BBA Programme

Cafeteria Approach

The Current Design

Caution Notice