We organise regular training sessions and offer value-add courses from the first year itself, says SIRT Chairman

In an exclusive interaction with Shiksha.com, Chairman of Sagar Institute of Research and Technology Er Sanjeev Agrawal talks extensively about the institute’s corporate connect that helps them in conducting guest lectures facilitated by industry professionals, corporate leaders and experts. These sessions basically aim at training students for the upcoming opportunities, the art and importance of being flexible and agile and how to quickly react in situations of contingencies such as a global pandemic situation. The institute follows a student-centric approach and a blended curriculum pedagogy that aims at the holistic development of the student.

Agrawal is among the focused and dedicated leaders of the country that aim at shaping the future of the students.

Read the complete interview below.

Q: What are the three things that your institute is doing that will enable it to differentiate itself from competition?

A: Sagar Institute of Research and Technology (SIRT) Bhopal is a Pioneer technical institute that provides quality education, the excellent ambience in academics, infrastructure, training and placement. Factors that help us differentiate from the competition are:

1. Research Facility:- SIRT is providing an excellent atmosphere in research and development. We have the maximum number of PhD faculty who are regularly publishing research papers in SCI, SCOPUS and other high indexed journals. They have also got a few patents and filing forms for further patents as a regular process. SIRT is a centre of research for various universities. Students are regularly submitting their research projects in National Agencies.
2. 360 Degree development:- We have created an excellent atmosphere to work all together as a student-teacher effort. Also in four years of the study period, beginning with academics, we give them the state-of-the-art lab facilities, best infrastructure, training for placement, value-added courses, internship programmes, industry exposures and to become an industry-ready person. We have MoUs and Tie-ups with different foreign universities such as Harvard University, Nanhua University and various other MNCs such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Government sectors like BHEL, CIPET.
3. Student Centric Teaching Methodology:- We focus on strong bonding with students. We have a model of one to one mapping of individual students where we identify the area of improvement and work together with the students. Our Students are participating in national-level programmes such as Hackathon, Rankathon and also involve in application-based educations and sponsored based research projects. Very recently SIRT CSE Branch team has won a Hackathon competition and awarded with Rs 1 Lakh cash prize. SIRT is the only technical institutions in Madhya Pradesh who has organised Hackathon competitions thrice in association with AICTE and MHRD.

We focus on strong bonding with students. We have a model of one to one mapping of individual students where we identify the area of improvement and work together with the students

Q: What are the top three initiatives undertaken by you that are helping your students become more industry ready?

A: Sagar Group of Institutions (SIRT Group) is a premier technical Institute in Madhya Pradesh that possesses over 18 years of legacy of academic excellence, scientific break-through and quality education.

To help students become industry-ready, we conduct:

1. Regular Assessments:- SIRT Group is committed to achieving excellence in technical, management and pharmacy education. We are doing one to one mapping of individual students over the year. Students have participated every year in the assessment process based on various skill assessment Tests conducted by external agencies such as CO Cubes and Aspiring Minds.  Apart from that our faculty assesses students every semester based on their academic performance.
2. Training and Value Addition Course- For the benefit of our students, we organise regular training sessions from the first year onwards and offer value addition courses as a part of RGPV curriculum. We also keep organising various placement ready programmes and expert lectures. Also, our In-house training department is associated with CO-Cubes and Aspiring Minds for training as visiting trainers.
3. Strong Industry Interface:- We also invite industry professionals, corporate leaders and alumni of the institute for student interaction. Hence we have signed MoU, Tie-Ups with reputed MNC’s and Government Sectors. Our Students are doing industrial visits regularly and we organise outdoor activities like training in different organisations, arrange for internship programmes

For the benefit of our students, we organise regular training sessions from the first year onwards and offer value addition courses as a part of RGPV curriculum. We also keep organising various placement ready programmes and expert lectures

Q: What are the key attributes that a student should have in order to qualify for the institution and perform better in the curriculum?

A: We are focused and dedicated towards the holistic development of every individual student and hence, we hence we follow modern student-centric teaching methodology, application-based education and sponsored based research projects but we do expect students to be equally receptive. In every academic session, we look for students who are passionate to learn to grow and be successful in their career. Those who have aspirations and the zeal to make them come true. Those are the kind of students we are looking forward to and they can also qualify for our institution.

In every academic session, we look for students who are passionate to learn to grow and be successful in their career. Those who have aspirations and the zeal to make them come true.

During the curriculum, students will have all-time access to state of art infrastructure that includes library and computer labs. Our library has a huge collection of books and online e-resources that can be accessed at any time. Also, we keep regularly conducting personality development courses, invite industry professionals, corporate leaders and experts for guest lectures for students’ interaction to help them learn from their real-life experiences. We make every possible effort to helps students perform better and become industry ready and are always in hunt of new initiatives that we could try to make students successful in their career.

Q: Which programme/s would you say is/are your best? What is it that helps your institution differentiate itself for this program?

A: SIRT Group has an immense structure in technology, pharmacy and management. We have an excellent structure in technical studies. We are NBA accredited college and also accredited by the multinational company Tata Consultancy Services.

All BTech and Pharmacy courses are our strength as we offer industry-embedded curriculum along with hands-on experience on live projects in collaboration with the corporates. This helps students to learn about how the industries work in reak time, what challenges they face and also learn to react in situations of contingencies. Basis of their learnings from the projects and internships, they are also required to submit a dissertation project in which they present their roles and responsibilities, their contribution and the outcomes of the project.

Under pharmacy, we offer BPharma and MPharma courses that are NBA accredited and offers excellent infrastructure and lab facilities to students. The courses are AICTE approved, affiliated to RGPV and also approved by Pharmacy Council of India. The institute has also signed up MOU’s with almost 10 multinational companies and received research projects sanctioned from AICTE, MPCST, IEDE and DST

Q: What are you doing to improve /drive better campus placements for your current students and alumni? What kind of jobs routinely come to campus? What would you say are the key recruitment trends for your college (observed over the past five years)?

A: For better campus recruitment, SIRT group has taken major initiatives:

• Strong Relationship with Corporates: We have tied-up MoU’s with different multinational companies. Apart from that we are interacting with HRs and doing industrial visits for the students.
• Outdoor Activities: Our T & P cell are regularly done meeting with HRs of MNCs and work year long for the better placement in campus drive.
• Placement Assessment Test: Our training section is taking regular personality development classes from the end of the first year. Also, they are grooming the students for reasoning, aptitude test, group discussion for the placement opportunities.

Basis our continuous efforts, we have been able to associate with companies such as TCS, Infosys, Amazon, Rave Technologies, Cognizant, Macleods, HSBC, Capgemini, Adani, Byju’s, Hexaware, Zensar, Samsung, Bosch, Diaspark, Gslab, Cipla, Glaxo, Jaro Education, Netlink, HCL, ICICI Bank and others who come and participate in our placements season every year.

SIRT Group is always conscious of its students. We do not believe in the trend, rather we invite all kinds of companies to visit our campus and conduct placement programme. Besides placements in multinational companies, we encourage our core branch students to qualify GATE Exam and apply for PSU jobs. We have our so many alumni who are presently working worldwide as well as some selected in IAS, MPPSC, Government Banks, CPWD, PWD, BHEL and other esteemed organisations in India.