The Faculty of Commerce has been a premier institute of education in Business Studies since 1949 and it was the first of its kind in India. When it was established in 1942, it was known as the Maharaja Pratapsinh College of Commerce and Economics. The varied academic staff has the experience and qualifications to take up the challenges of education and research in Business Studies. At present, the Faculty has five departments:
(i) Department of Accounting and Financial Management
(ii) Department of Banking and Insurance
(iii) Department of Business Economics
(iv) Department of Commerce and Business Management
(v) Department of Cooperative Management and Rural Studies
The Faculty also receives the services of colleagues from allied departments from other Faculties :
(i) Department of English, Faculty of Arts
(ii) Department of Business Law, Faculty of Law
(iii) Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science
The Faculty is making spirited efforts to streamline its administration and launch academic reforms. For imparting knowledge about operational aspects of business, experts from the field are invited as visiting Faculty as per needs of the course.
Serious and committed students can look forward to a challenging and productive educational experience in this faculty. We are determined to maintain the academic excellence that was once its hallmark and infuse new energy and vigour into all the academic programs. To ensure success we expect discipline and regular attendance from the students.
Faculty of Commerce History
From a Hundred Students to a World of Possibilities: The Story of the Faculty of Commerce
Imagine a small college in Baroda in 1942, a handful of classrooms, a modest library, limited facilities, and barely a hundred students. Yet within those simple surroundings lived a remarkable dream: to prepare young Indians for a changing world. That modest beginning at Pratapsinh College of Commerce and Economics would eventually grow into the Faculty of Commerce of The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, one of the region’s leading centres of commerce education.
When The M.S. University was established in 1949, the Faculty of Commerce became one of its founding faculties in 1950, under its first Dean, Prof. V. Y. Kolhatkar. The early decades were years of building not merely departments and classrooms, but a culture of discipline, academic excellence, research and meaningful teacher-student relationships. Through the 1950s and 1960s, accounting, banking, economics, business administration and co-operation grew stronger. Even during the turbulence of the 1970s, the Faculty remained resilient, committed to academic freedom and democratic values. By the 1980s, it had educated thousands and developed into a respected centre of postgraduate education, research and professional learning. Then India changed and the Faculty changed with it. The 1990s brought liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. Commerce could no longer remain confined to ledgers and traditional bookkeeping. Accounting expanded into financial management; management education embraced marketing, human resources and strategy. In 1997, the Faculty took a landmark step by introducing its first self-financed BBA programme, opening a new door from commerce into management.
The new millennium brought specialisation, professional education and research. Programmes in Marketing Management and Human Resource Management grew, the PGDBA was introduced, and the RBI Endowment Unit strengthened advanced research in banking, finance and economics. The classroom itself began to transform: lectures were joined by case studies, projects, presentations, technology and interaction with industry professionals. Commerce became increasingly interdisciplinary connecting accounting with technology, business with economics, management with statistics, banking with finance and communication with language. By the 2010s, another question emerged: What happens after graduation? The answer was employability. The Career Counselling and Placement Cell, skill-oriented courses, digital marketing, GST, e-filing, computerised accounting, Excel, entrepreneurship and other practical programmes began preparing students not simply to understand business, but to enter the world of business. The blackboard remained but now a screen stood beside it.
And then came 2020.
The pandemic emptied classrooms and moved education onto screens. Examinations, admissions and teaching entered an unfamiliar digital world. The transition was challenging, but it also proved something extraordinary: the classroom could disappear, yet education could continue. When students finally returned to campus in 2022, the familiar teacher-student relationship returned with them. Technology had changed but that human connection had survived. Today, under NEP 2020, the Faculty is moving further towards skills, flexibility, internships, practical exposure and global business. New directions such as Business Operations and Global Business and Supply Chain Operations reflect a world where commerce now reaches far beyond the traditional ledger to analytics, digital business, taxation technology, entrepreneurship and global supply chains. In 2026, even admission to B. Com (Honours) took a new direction, combining academic performance with an entrance examination.
And so, the journey comes full circle.
From about 100 students to a vast academic community, from bookkeeping to business analytics, from a few classrooms to a multidisciplinary institution, the Faculty of Commerce has never remained still. Its greatest strength has been its willingness to evolve. The degree became a pathway to skills, internships and careers.
Yet one thing has remained unchanged: the belief that education must prepare young people for a world that has not yet arrived. That was the dream in 1942. It remains the mission today.
The first forty years built the institution. The decades that followed reinvented it. And the story of the Faculty of Commerce is still being written with every new student who walks through its doors.
