Students here have access to alumni mentoring, says Alumni Affairs Chairman IES MCRC

In a conversation with Shiksha.com, Professor and Chairman-Alumni Affairs IES Management College and Research Centre Dr Neeraj Dixit extensively talks about the importance of practical exposure for students to become industry-ready. Also. he shares the details of strong alumni-student network that helps students to understand various carrer opportunities and what the corporate world expects from them. Dr Dixit has over 24 years of rich industry and academia experience. He has published and presented more than 15 research papers and case studies in conferences and national and international journals.

Read the excerpts of the interview below:

Q: What are the salient features of the teaching methodology adopted by your college? How does this differ from others?

A: Practical Training is the most important form of training. We focus on active learning rather than passive. Research says that people generally remember 90 per cent of what they say as they do a thing.  IESMCRC employs a variety of teaching methodology to inculcate practical training so that students remember what they have learned. Apart from Lectures in classrooms, where we use state of the art LCD Projectors and world-class sound systems, we follow a lot of best practices:

• Live projects: We start giving live projects from Industry from the second semester onwards. Thus, our students have more industry exposure. By the time they pass out they typically do three to four projects for companies apart from summer training. We are able to give live projects to students because of a lot of emphasis on Industry Institute Connect.
• Interaction with alumni: IESMCRC organises monthly sector-wise hi-tea for alumni. Alumni from different sectors such as Media and Advertising, Pharma, Research and Consultancy and HR come to the college to interact with students. Students with common interests connect with alumni and in return, they solve all of their doubts. They guide them as to what preparation has to be done by the students to enter and grow in that particular sector.
• Faculty and alumni mentoring: Most students are unable to make decisions about their specialisation choice and industry choice. They need a senior to guide them. Most of the IESMCRC faculty is from Industry and hence a formal faculty mentoring programme helps to guide the student. Faculty members help realise the true potential of a student. Students have also access to alumni mentoring, which helps them to know the latest going on in the industry and accordingly choose sectors that are in line with their capabilities and opportunities in the market.
• Emphasis on field projects: Most faculty members give a field project to students which makes them visit respondents in the field. The respondent could be a customer in a shopping mall or a manager working in the industry.
• Emphasis on certificate programs: Students are required to do certificate programmes apart from their courses in their MBA curriculum. Students do certificate programs in Digital Marketing, Data Analytics, Advanced Excel, Simulation and many other courses.
• Leadership and teamwork (LTM) module: To make students business leaders they are asked to undergo an LTM module to hone their leadership talent. They are also given responsibilities in organising various events of the college including TED conference (TEDxIESMCRC).
• Partnership with CII YI: We have a close association with CII and other Industry bodies. Under tie-up with CII, managers from various industries come weekly to campus and do a workshop every week on a different topic.
• Outbound in empower camps: Students spend four days in Empower Camp located at Kolad, Maharashtra. They undergo a lot of leadership and team-building exercises under the supervision of a retired Army Brigadier.

Apart from all above we follow case-based teaching, presentations by students, video-based lectures, role-plays and knowledge assessment tests at the end of the class.

Q: How are you preparing your students to be Industry ready?

A: We prepare students to be industry-ready by emphasising more on practical exposure rather than only theory teaching in the classrooms. We organise following activities:

• Industry and alumni guest lectures
• Interaction with Association of IESMCRC Alumni (AIA) members 
• Mock GD and Interviews with panel consisting of industry managers, alumni and senior faculty members.
• Live projects and summer training
• Elevator speech technique
• Daily discussion on articles in the Economic Times newspaper which is given complimentary to them
• Specialisation and management projects
• Industry visits
• Rural immersion programme

Q: What are the qualities you are looking for in student applicants? What qualities do they need to do well in your course?

A: We look for the right attitude in a candidate. Apart from a good score in the qualifying exam, we have a three-stage selection process. It starts with a Psychometric test in the college followed by GD and PI. We give due weightage to candidates having experience in good companies and job profiles. The personality of the candidate is also important, they should be smart. The candidate needs to also have excellent communication skills but apart from all these the attitude of the student has to be right. Students need to do a lot of hard work because apart from lectures they have a variety of activities inside the college and also outside. They need to be self-motivated and always focus on the tasks ahead.

Q: How do you ensure that your course curriculum is up to date and meets industry requirements?

A: Every two years our syllabus is revised. We have a syllabus revision committee which takes feedback from

• Industry managers
• Faculty members
• Alumni
• Industry associations

They also look into the new advances in management teaching such as Data analytics. The syllabus of renowned MBA schools in India and abroad is also studied in detail and best practices and topics are included in the syllabus.

Q: Is your college receptive to innovation, technology, science & entrepreneurship? How? Could you cite some examples of these?

A: We are receptive to innovation, science, technology and entrepreneurship. IESMCRC is one of the very few MBA colleges which has entrepreneurship as a specialisation in the second year. The college also encourages students to use the latest databases in college such as Emerald and ACE while doing their projects. We encourage students to do courses of MOOC which are free of cost for students. Every year we organise TED Conference (TEDxIESMCRC). Students and faculty members work to bring the latest in Technology and other areas in terms of speakers for the conference. IESMCRC has from a Professor in Germany, license for conducting simulation course which is administered to all students.