Introduction

The prosperity and the growth of any country is based on its commerce and trade. Commerce is blood stream of a nation and it is the fundamental requirements for development. Commerce education plays a very important role in economic growth of a country. Commerce is a composite study of accounts, management, business law, tax, business statistics, human resource management, entrepreneurial development, economics, and business studies. Commerce provides direction, stability in the organization, and most importantly, it provides growth to the organization. Accounts help the organization to see the true picture or condition of our business with the help of balance sheets, journals, ledgers, etc. Economics, one of the most important aspects of commerce, provides business knowledge on how to use limited resources for business and get a maximum profit in the short term. Business studies provide knowledge about sales management, HR management and marketing. Understand the need and importance of the course, in 2005-06 B Com undergraduate course was introduced and in the year 2012-13 M.Com post graduate course was introduced in the college. Rural students unprivileged and underprivileged background showed more interest in joining this course and the admission are made on merit and government quota basis as co-education system.

The faculty of commerce places a very strong emphasis on providing the students with an in-depth understanding of concepts, both theoretical and practical. Practical sessions help keep the students engaged and focused. The faculty is committed to creating the best professionals, managers and leaders in the commerce field. The faculty members were selected and appointed by the state government with norms like qualifying test, experience and interviews the shortage of faculty members are appointed as guest lecturers.

Vision

“Provide values based Commerce education to the youngsters to server the country, industry and society with right knowledge, good skills and positive attitude.”

Mission

“Educate and train the Commerce students effectively with subject knowledge, practical skills and life skills with ethical bases.”

Pedagogy

The College is affiliated to Thiruvalluvar University and the Commerce department follows the university CBCS syllabus which is updated in every three years.

Department Library

The department library has 1013 books which include subject books, reference book, books on soft skills, management topics and books to prepare for various competitive exams. Students are encouraged to develop the reading habit and library hours are introduced on weekly basis. There is a Department Library which contains hundreds of Text books and Reference books authored by eminent persons. Besides these books, competitive examination books are also kept in the department library which can be referred by the students with the prior permission of the concerned staff member.

Field study and Industrial Visit

Field work enables students and researchers to examine the way scientific theories interact with real life. Field work is important in both the social and natural sciences. Social sciences, such as economics or history, focus on people, culture, and society. The field study is an educational technique, which makes the educational process more active, helps the students to work in real situations and to develop skills, competencies and positive attitudes through activation of their existing ones. We put a lot of emphasis on holistic learning. We believe learning should not be restricted to four walls. To bring the immersive learning within the business students at Westford, we incorporate industrial visit as part of the curriculum. The aim of these industrial visit is “Education – Exposure – Experience. “The main objective of conducting a field trip for students is to reinforce experiential and contextual learning. Industrial visit are a way of enhancing classroom learning by making real world connections and Industrial visit expose students to different lifestyles and places. Our department students are taken to nearby Gudiyattam vegetable markets, Uzhavarsandhais and big mandis and are asked to learn how even the small vendors /agriculturists market and sell their products and produces. They are also taken to some big industries to have good amount of knowledge on industrial environment. Besides these ,after getting nod from the Chartered Accountants and Tax consultants our commerce department students are sent to their offices and advised to learn how Income – Tax returns , GST forms are filed .

Extension Activities

Extension Activities is a part of university curriculum for the students. Education is an integral part of extension. The basic concept of extension is that it is education. Extension means that type of education which is stretched out to the people in rural areas, beyond the limits of the educational institutions to which the formal type of education is normally confined. Extension Education is the process of teaching rural people how to live better by learning ways that improve their society, industries home, institutions and college. Commerce department emphasise the importance to the students and develop the interest in the extension activities.

Question Bank:

The copies of a question Bank containing previous semester examination questions and model questions prepared for all subjects by the staff of our department are kept in the department for the betterment of the students.The students are allowed to go through the question bank and take photo copies of it. The question bank is in English as well as in local vernacular so that the students who had their schooling in Tamil can understand and face the semester examination without any phobia.

Magazines:

Keeping the importance of physical health and mental health of our students, our department has been subscribing health conscious and beauty conscious journals and magazines without charging any amount from the students.

Objectives of Department

Commerce education plays a very important role in economic growth. It is one of the keys which lead to success in all sectors of the economy. Commerce education has gained such importance because activities relating to commerce are also affected when the business cycle is going well. Through commerce education, students are exposed to the environment of the business world. It enables the importance of smearing economic ideologies while making business decisions. It makes them aware of social, economic, and political problems. Commerce outfits to the distribution trait of any business. Production must be consumed; there exists a suitable distribution channel to aid this consumption. And that is what commerce does by creating a market for surplus products. It has widened up the global market and has been similarly useful in hastening the practice of exchange in local markets around the globe. It is already established that good commerce plays a tremendous role in the economic development of the country.

Features available in the Department

Practical labs:

Students of our commerce department are taken to Post offices, Commercial banks and Co- operative banks to get an idea about banking law and practices and have good banking habits. By paying a visits to these establishments our students learn how to fill Pay – in – Slips, withdrawal forms , how to write Cheques , how to purchase Demand Drafts and how to send money by way of RTGS , NEFT and how to use NET banking or Mobile banking .

Good citizenship:

Students are advised and encouraged to avoid products that are harmful to life and make the nation Eco – friendly ( by avoiding plastic items and adopting digital transactions) Litter free, Tobacco free, liquor free and Pan Parag one .

Department Clubs:

1. Skills and Talents Club: Students in order to remove pessimistic approach/ attitude and become optimists our department has this club which strives hard to bring out the potentialities of them and make the students as good, young, dynamic personalities. For assessing the skills of the students, this club holds Essay competition, Quiz competition, Elocution and competitions for Chess / Carrom players. Also Martial Arts trainees are encouraged by this club.

2. Rural Resources and Agri Business club: Agribusiness is a way of describing companies and enterprises that are related to cultivating and processing food and other agricultural products. Agribusiness also is used to describe businesses that are involved in the marketing and distribution of farm products. These businesses include warehouses, wholesalers, processors, retailers, and more. Any company that participates in the production, marketing, safety, and distribution of food is involved in agribusiness. Commerce students are motivated to learn and practice agro based industries through this club interacting with farmers and agribusiness persons.

3. Business Person – Students club: To understand the events or global changes that take place in the business world , Business people who are running industries in and around Gudiyattam taluk are invited to deliver a speech for the betterment of our department students .The Business tycoons apprise the expectations ( exposure in latest versions of Tally , ERP ) of the business world in the current scenario .

4. Life skills club: This club inculcate the students of our department how to cope up with stress, how to solve their problems without hesitation and how to react in a critical situation. Also this club shapes the students in preparing Curriculum – de – vitae and developing their communications skills.

5. Cultural club: To imbibe the good culture among the students, the cultural club of our department conducts cultural festivals such as Pongal, Muharram and Christmas. Also this club encourages the students to participate in Classical, Western and Folk songs / music / dance competitions held in our college and other educational institutions.

6. Extension Activities (College Social Responsibility): The students of our department are encouraged to create awareness among the members of public on importance of literacy, 100 percentage voting in elections , Vaccination against COVID – 19 ,How to be cautious during rainy seasons and safeguard from unprecedented floods and lead pollution – free life ( by using electric vehicles and green crackers ).

7. Institution and Industries linkage: Our department is constantly keeping in touch with some cottage and small scale industries engaged in Manufacturing match sticks , leather items and in weaving and take the students to those industries so that the students may get practical knowledge / Technical know – how .

Faculty Role Model Contributions:

i. Staff Resource Inner Circle: Success of the student community mainly lies in the hands of teaching staff. Keeping this in mind, our department staff members shape themselves by preparing and delivering a speech in a meeting,called Staff Resource Inner Circle arranged by the staff members of our department every month .Each and every teacher of department share his / her own views in this platform on the recent vital issues and at the end of the speech a discussion takes place. This is beneficial both for the student and teaching communities.

ii. Faculty Development Programmes: Our department staff members enrich their subject knowledge by eagerly participating In National and International Seminars / Conferences / Workshops / Symposia and Webinars conducted by our college and reputed educational institutions in Vellore and nearby districts.

iii. Research Activities: Teaching and Research are the need of this hour. Realising this, our faculty members do researches and publish their research work / articles in reputed journals bearing ISBN Numbers. The students too are encouraged by the teachers to conduct research works based on both primary as well as secondary Data and submit them to our department for evaluation.

iv. Good practices : The students who belong to downtrodden category are identified and helped by the staff members of our department (by paying Tuition fees, exam fees) to pursue their education without any hindrance. Similarly the students from far reaching places (remote areas) are shown the way (Accommodation facilities) to stay in the headquarters of their educational institution. The Physically challenged students are encouraged to participate in sports activities so that they shall not have any Inferiority complex.

List of Faculty Members