If you sign up for MBA at Bangalore University you will have to learn German, French, and other foreign languages

Students who aspire to pursue management courses under Bangalore University (BU) will now have to compulsorily learn a foreign language as part of their course from the coming academic year. The Board of Studies (BOS) for management courses recently approved the decision to introduce one foreign language compulsorily at the Post Graduate level from the 2019-20 academic year.

Students will have to invest six hours in their courses for learning a foreign language for which four credits have been allocated, as per the university's decision.

According to authorities, this foreign language learning will be a part of the compulsory paper on "Employability skills and Language Learning" that is going to be introduced for 1st and 3rd-semester students from the 2019-20 academic year. Currently, the varsity is teaching foreign languages, but the option is left to students and is not mandatory. But from the next academic year, it is compulsory during 1st and 3rd semesters, although it will carry only four credits.

According to a senior professor of BU from Management Studies department, there are plenty of job opportunities at countries like France, Sweden and Germany for management graduates. "The students' employability rate decreases when they don't know the local language. The major reason they are getting rejected at the level of recruitment from the companies based in these countries is, the lack of communication skills in the local or official language of that particular country," says Prof K Janardhanam, director Canara Bank School of Management Bangalore University.

"Apart from learning professional English, they will now have to mandatorily learn a foreign language. This will help make students suitable for the current job market and help them get jobs," he adds.

As per the varsity's decision, the management students will be provided with options to choose any one foreign language among those that are going to be introduced. "It has not been decided yet as to which foreign languages will be introduced. We will ask the students for their preferences first and if we see that at least 10 students want to learn one particular language, we will introduce that" explains Janardhanam.

Meanwhile, the varsity is planning to approach concerned authorities for hiring faculty who will be appointed to teach these foreign languages.

(With inputs from Rashmi Belur)