College Review: Goa Institute of Management (GIM)

GIM has an extremely modern and hi-tech campus, wherein, Radio Frequency Identity Cards (RFID) are used by students, making it the first cashless campus in India. Students need to recharge these cards with money and then use them to make all their purchases. The cards are also to be used to gain access to move in and out of the campus. However, if one loses this card, he/she is practically helpless on the campus and will have to fish out Rs. 500 to get a new card issued.

Infrastructure

GIM is credited to have one of the best infrastructure among business schools in India at present. The college has high-end servers of IBM and HP. The entire campus offers wifi connectivity with an Internet connectivity speed of 45 MBPS. The institute also has a well-equipped amphi-theatre, swimming pool, basketball court etc.  The campus also houses a gymnasium, multipurpose hall and guest rooms for visiting faculty along with a small shopping area, stationery store, provision counters and ATM machines.

The classrooms are air-conditioned and semi-circular in shape. Each classroom is equipped with television, projector and presentation equipment. This B-school has a single chair seating arrangement because it is believed that such an arrangement helps during in-group activities.

To ensure all-round development of its students, the institute also houses - Centre of Social Sensitivity, Centre for Research, Centre for Creativity and Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

GIM’s library is automated and students can use their RFID to issue books 24*7. The library has a modest collection of over 7,175 titles and subscriptions to around 165 national and International journals. The institute also has a tie-up with the University of Ohio, USA, which assists it with: updation of titles, annual reports of around 1000 companies, stock exchange directory, CMIE and a host of data mining tools like CapEx, Alpha, Ebsco, Proquest, IBID, CRIS INFAC Research Pro etc.

Faculty

The staff at GIM presently consists of 35 professors in the core faculty, two as adjunct faculty and 56 visiting faculty members. The faculty at this B-school has many research papers to its credit and also acts as visiting faculty at prominent management institutions of the country such as IIMs, XLRI etc. A student confided that the teachers at GIM are more like friends to them and can be approached whenever necessary. Current students at the institution are confident that their teachers have solutions for all their problems and queries.

One professor for which students are all praises is Professor Kuruville who is a visiting faculty for the subject of Marketing Management. The reason behind him being termed as the best professor is that his way of teaching is very interesting and interactive. It is neither the usual textbook method nor a formal presentation method. Students divulge that he tends to amalgamate different teaching techniques and helps students understand the most difficult of concepts through discussions.

Teaching Techniques

Classes are conducted through a discussion based system. Students are shown presentations or case studies followed by an interactive session where concepts are explained in detail.

GIM has mid-term and end-term exams and surprise tests are not a common phenomenon. But beware! Human Resource Management faculty is known to ask students to take out their pens and papers for a quick test every now and then. Short quiz sessions are conducted to test the knowledge levels of students on a regular basis.
Students are encouraged to take down notes during lectures and professors give handouts for topics along with other reading material on the central server, for which each student has a login ID.

Placements

GIM is known to have good placements each year. Out of the total 222 students eligible for placements in 2013, 214 students got placed. In the same year, 53 companies visited the campus for placement.

• Average salary offered: Rs 7.9 lakhs p.a.
• Median salary offered: Rs 8.3 lakhs p.a.
• Highest salary offered: Rs 15 lakhs p.a.

Some of the recruiters who visited the campus in 2013 are Flipkart, Goldman Sachs, Metro Cash and Carry, RBS, Bisleri, TAS Analytics Services, IMRB, Tata Motors, Bisleri, Mu Sigma, Wipro, SBI Life, Mastek, Pidilite etc.

Attendance

Faculty at GIM may be friendly but when it comes to attendance, the rules are stringent. The minimum attendance to sit for exams is 75% and each student needs to maintain this; otherwise they may even be down-graded. Similar is the case with late reporting, if students fails to make it on time for the class, they are not allowed to enter the lecture hall and they lose out on attendance for that subject as well.

College Crowd & Hangout Places

GIM has a rich diversity of students with most of them possessing a work experience between 1-6 years. The institute has a 1:3 gender ratio (female to male). The seniors are extremely helpful and take sessions on how to study different subjects, how to manage time as well as solve any confusion regarding placements.

The hangout areas of this B-school are the obvious areas facing the Western Ghats as well as valley facing area right behind the library. Both these places have benches placed so that students can enjoy nature at its best. Other places where you can see students huddled together are the library, cafeteria, amphitheatre (which lies right outside the hostels) and breakout rooms.

Apart from this, various clubs of this college keep organizing trips and treks to keep the students entertained, giving them a welcome change from their hectic study schedule.

Canteen

The food in the canteen is good but expensive. Students say this is because of the transportation charges that are levied on the food as it has to be transported uphill.

Two dishes students find hard to resist in the mess are biryani and fish fry.

College Fest

Students at GIM, organize a three-day annual business event called Samridhi. The highlight of this event is the business conference where speakers from diverse business backgrounds and interests come together to hold sessions.

Another very popular event conducted by the college is the annual corporate quiz - Wizbiz. This event sees participation from some of the best and most prestigious establishments of the country. Several notable quizzers including national winners of quizzes like Tata Crucible and Brand Equity have also taken part in this quiz competition.
A music festival by the name 'Inception' is also organized by students at GIM.

Verdict

GIM offers an extremely good atmosphere for students to study management sciences. It also has several international affiliations such as with the University of Antwerp.  The institute is also known to conduct student as well as faculty exchange programmes with Fachhochschule Ingolstadt, Germany and Universidade Catolica Portuguesa. Such initiatives are sure to offer students very good exposure to the corporate world. However, an aspect where the college scores low is that the fee charged is extremely high and the campus is located far from the city.

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