Here’s how to choose the right Business-school and the right MBA program that would make a difference to your career. If you’re planning to do an MBA, you better do it from a good school.
Introduction
It is a well-established fact that students opt for a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree not just to supplement their graduate education but also to get better salary packages. Here are the different parameters on which students must judge management colleges & courses.
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Often students think about completely changing streams after getting admission in colleges, in order to achieve their goals. Thus it is important that you take a rational and well informed decision while choosing an institution so that you can save valuable time in the future.
Any post graduate management degree has lessons in management at its core, and is expected to sharpen students’ leadership skills and confidence. This, in turn, leads to bigger opportunities and a better career graph.
Read: Top Management colleges in Mumbai
Factors to Consider
Important Factors to Consider: Selection Process, Affiliation/accreditation/collaboration, Learning Components, Curriculum, Faculty, Pedagogy, Future Orientation, Global Exposure, Industry Interface – Interactive/live projects/corporate internship, Potential to network/alumni outreach, Infrastructure and living experience, Facilities provided, Extracurricular activities, Fee Structure, Placements
Here are a few factors that you must evaluate:
Focus on Core Skills
What gives a cutting edge to the top Business schools is that these are the very essence of learning acquired in these colleges. These Institutions believes in putting the focus back on the core of management education and bringing out students with the right skill sets – be it for managerial jobs or entrepreneurship.
This objective is achieved by providing hands-on education through the case method and mentor-ship programs. Innovative problem solving techniques such as Design Thinking and Management simulation are also taught and practiced here. The pedagogy not only provides rich knowledge based on real life situations but also equips them to handle stress, make critical decisions and develop team management skill sets. It enhances recruitment opportunities as well as productivity, thus facilitating better growth opportunities.
Credibility
A plethora of institutions across the country today offer management education. Ascertain the credibility of an institute before taking the plunge. “Ideally, a student must select an institution that has been offering the course for a few years at least and is recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC) or All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE),” says R.S.S. Mani, vice president, Institution for Technology and Management, Navi Mumbai. It is also important to not be swayed by institutes that flaunt awards received from private institutions with no academic or industrial relevance.
Popular & Recognized Courses
The AICTE approved PGDM program from these colleges offer students double specialisation whereby the students not only gain knowledge to be better professional but also acquire in-depth knowledge in the field of their choice. This unique feature of dual specialisation has made the program very popular with students and Corporates. The MMS program, affiliated to Mumbai University, is also very popular among students due to the depth of knowledge imparted and interactive case study based pedagogy.
Faculty
The list of faculty members along with their qualifications for most institutions is provided on their website. Take initiative and try to know more about them. According to Anuj Jain, chief counsellor at EduGroomers, a career guidance institute, students must rely more on first-hand information about the faculty if possible. “It is difficult to trust college rankings and faculty information as published by different organizations because there is always a chance that one or more institutions may have paid for them. Students who are already studying in the institution will definitely give honest feedback about the faculty members,” he says.
Curriculum
The fundamental principle with regards to the curriculum is that the course offered must determine the college for a student and not the other way round. “Nowadays choosing an MBA college has become akin to choosing from a menu card. Students give more importance to the brand name of a college than to the course they want to study,” says Jain. In addition to this, students must also look at how a college syllabus adds to their competencies and skill sets. Although the basic syllabus remains the same, each institution can choose to conduct extra projects, workshops etc. for better understanding of the subject. Says Mani, “Students must look at what an institution is offering apart from the usual academic syllabus which all institutions are required to offer. They must make sure that the institution teaches them how to communicate with people in different situations, take responsibility and act like a leader.”
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Certificate Programs
Another interesting component of education of the top B-schools are the Professional Certificate Programs (PDP) in Retail Management, Entrepreneurship Management, Media Management & Digital Marketing, Capital Markets, Event Management New Business Creation – Incubation. These are short term programs which are offered to the public and also as an option to the Colleges’full time students. These well-designed courses facilitate practical knowledge of the particular area and enhances professional skills. The experiential training programs do wonder for students creativity and update their skill sets. These programs have been designed by industry experts along with experienced college faculty.
Focus on People Skills
As there is increased acknowledgement that people skills are business critical, the courses have ample focus on them and include tools and techniques to enhance soft skills. Many events and workshops, driven by students, are organised through the year to nurture leadership, team management as well as collaboration skills. Among these are Industry Conclaves, Research Conference, Retail Carnival, Business Quiz, Global and Local Industry visits, and much more.
Training and Placement Cells
It is perhaps the most important factor for students while deciding on a college. Often this becomes their only decision making criterion.
The training and placement cells in these institutions play a vital role, not only in facilitating best of placement opportunities but also in training students in soft skills, and enhancing their confidence. This not only enhances placement opportunities but also enables the alumni to stay at the top of their game. The top colleges also have an active Alumni cell in which Alumni are engaged with the institute for various institutional activities.
Check up placement data provided by colleges on their websites. It could be decked up for advertising purposes. “In addition to audited placement reports provided online, students must speak to the recently graduated batch to get an idea about the placement scenario. They must aim for institutions which offer a package that will be a decent return of investment,” says Mukund Kumar, joint secretary, placement cell, Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi. Another important aspect is the kind of internships offered by the institution. “It gives students a chance to interact with people who are doing practical work and allows them to be better prepared for the job,” says Mani.
Good companies from various industries come to these colleges for campus recruitments, to name a few – ITC, TATA group, Reliance (ADAG), Decathlon, Godrej, OLA, Pepsi, L&T constructions, IDFC, Motilal Oswal, Cadbury, Ernst & Young, SBI Life, Axis Bank, Omnicom, and many such companies.
It is not surprising then that these colleges bag a number of awards in the past, from industry bodies and large media groups.
Avoid institutions which have:
1) No proper accreditation
2) No attendance structure
3) Website which only look good but have little substance
Internship programs for MBA students
An extensive industry survey indicated that most MBAs are unemployable due to a lack of real corporate exposure. companies have to make extra efforts to make them deploy-able. This involves a lot of unlearning and retraining, which is both difficult for the company and the recruit making MBAs lose the premium lustre.
PGDM programs in Marketing and Finance have been designed after meticulous interactions with the industry incorporating extensive corporate exposure whilst pursuing academic excellence from day one. This enables companies to pick the interns at the initial admission stage itself and then groom him/her into their corporate culture and environment and prepare them for leadership roles in the organisation. The company is able to plan, train and deploy the interns immediately without having to go through a cumbersome reorientation process.
For the students, their energy, skills and time are efficiently utilised in gaining the requisite corporate experience and simultaneously pursuing their academic specialisation at the same time. Students attend classes in the morning and spend time learning real business in the afternoon with their mentor corporate. they also get healthy stipend making them independent and self-sustaining with an assured career.
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