Undergraduate Business School: The Beginnings

Business and business administration have become such an integral part of modern existence that we can hardly imagine a time when there was no specialized course for teaching their basic skills and theories. Yet such was the situation before 1819, because that was the year when the first business school of the world, The Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, was established in Paris. But the world had to wait for another 62 years, till 1881, before the first undergraduate business school was established in the form of the Wharton School, of the University of Pennsylvania.

MBA versus BBA

Most Americans still think of graduate-level institutions of higher learning when they hear the term ‘business school'. They are thinking of the graduates from the famous business schools of Chicago or Harvard. But the truth is, the ‘catch them young' principle is as much applicable to business learning as to any other field of study. There is many a business school that offers undergraduate degrees, both in the USA and elsewhere.

What are the main degrees offered by these institutions? That depends on where it is located. If it is an undergraduate business school in the USA, they probably confer the familiar BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) degree upon the completion of an intensive four-year course taught mainly through the case-study method popularized by Harvard.

The Undergraduate Business School Abroad

Outside the USA, however, you are likely to be offered a B.Com (Bachelor of Commerce) degree, specially if the undergraduate business school is in England or one of the former British colonies like India, Canada, South Africa or the West Indies. The emphasis in a B.Com course is usually less on business administration and more on business methods and principles, like accounting, marketing, taxation, corporate law etc. If the undergraduate business school is situated in Australia or New Zealand, the B.Com degree will probably go under the name of BBus (Bachelor of Business).