In a conversation with BW Education, Kulbhushan Belluni, Director, IIM Kashipur, highlighted the changes that are taking place in the light of the epidemic and explained how institutions and faculties are upgrading themselves to adapt to the new normal. Quotes:
How has the overall business landscape changed in the last few months? Which parts change permanently and ensure new adaptations?
Business is evolving very fast to move forward with obstacles like a part of the business environment, Covid, and it is rebuilding a lot of infrastructure and capabilities to adapt to this reality. It involves a fundamental restructuring of the business, starting with the goals, by rearranging strategies and infrastructure and directing them towards changing processes and activities. Infrastructure and related CAPEX changes are long-term changes that can be termed as permanent changes and are in response to permanent changes focusing on employee wellness and productivity, profitability and ESG, risk reduction and daily decision making and parcel. – Creating strategic initiatives in the organization. Business has moved much closer to being located within the wider society and not just its special part, to allow access to opportunities outside that special part which can exploit barriers.
In your opinion, what is the strategic driver for organizations in the business education sector?
A shift in the delivery of online education, especially for executive training and courses for working executives, is probably the most important driver for immediate change in the field of education. The second driver is the increase in demand for re-skilling and upskilling by executives working in the gigworking growth. This means that more adaptive learning paths and significant changes in curriculum design and program management are urgently needed. Institutions need to reconfigure their service delivery models when reconsidering their investment in technology. Technology flattens the playing field and so institutes need to consider either meaningful differences or general metrics such as performance in different rankings.
How is your organization tackling and facing this challenge?
IIM Kashipur has restructured its long-term programs after program review by experts and restructured its executive education offerings from 2020 onwards and hence the constraints and future expectations built into the restructuring adopted. IIM Kashipur incorporates a huge focus on technology, analysis and data science, design thinking, critical thinking, environmental and sustainable business practices, industry workshops and experiential learning initiatives and has updated all its offers through integration.
A strong analytical and problem-solving approach focuses on reconnecting MBA and all other education offers with real-world problems, which not only increases employment, but also the career prospects of all our alumni.
What are you doing to stay ahead and re-imagine your organization?
The Institute has also launched new programs and developed a detailed long-term strategic plan during the COVID period to chart the future direction of the Institute. The strategic plan promises IIM Kashipur that they will meet expectations and take a leading position with its different offers. We hope that IIM Kashipur will become an important place for rapid career advancement in the future.
In your opinion, will the changed situation affect education on campus?
Although there seems to be a major shift towards online education, an important perception is the value of offline education in a campus setting for freshers. On-campus education is now going to come at a premium because its true value has been realized for those freshers who have no contact with any organization like IIM or corporate career. On-campus education will now be more focused on providing targeted benefits to students while focusing on online education officials and those who are unable to come to campus or receive a residential program.
How are you implementing hybrid education?
The Institute has made significant investments and developed a long-term investment plan to improve IT and related infrastructure, including classroom and teaching aids, considering the future of hybrid education. The Institute has already undertaken training programs and special seminars to prepare teachers and staff for such offers.
What steps are being taken to upgrade and re-skill the faculties?
The organization has conducted special teaching workshops and seminars for teachers to prepare for the changing online learning situation. The institute also has facilities through which a faculty member can receive training for their upgradation and participate in workshops and capacity building exercises. Building a collaborative culture of sharing innovations and bringing educational innovations together is an important contributor to this. The Institute provides substantial research grants, research papers and even facilitates research collaborations through various initiatives such as travel assistance and visiting fellowships for equipped international researchers enabling faculty to conduct collaborative research and projects that may be regularly upgraded and on the cutting edge. Education and research distribution.
What new management courses should be introduced?
The Institute has created a significant space with a large proportion of faculties involved in teaching and conducting research in the domain of analysis and data science. The institute has already launched a two-year full-time MBA in an analytics course in 2020 and the response has been overwhelming. IIM Kashipur has also recently launched a two-year online MBA in Analytics which focuses on working executives. The Institute looks forward to launching new Entrepreneur and Management courses built on the skills and achievements of the Institute’s Faculty and Center of Excellence. The institute is ready to launch new offers in the next few years. Appropriate stages of development will be announced for this.
How are you collaborating with the industry for internships and placements?
IIM Kashipur facilitates internship and placement activities but these activities are mainly student-led. The response to internships and placements this year has been exceptional, with key sectors based on the recovery of the post-Covid economy. More than half of the eligible batches for the summer internship have been placed, and more than 90 percent of the final year batch has already received placement offers. IIM Kashipur has organized a generous mix of recruiters for first time recruiters starting from the ongoing long term relationship and we look forward to ending the placement season this month. The Big 4 consulting firms, industry giants in various sectors and top level startups have also hired from IIM Kashipur for summer placements as well as final placements.
What role can EdTechs play in management education?
EdTechs is going to play an important role in the field of education in the future. IIM Kashipur thinks it is important to see them not as competitors but as collaborators. IIM Kashipur’s Times Group has long-term partnerships with a number of EdTech companies, including TSW and Nulearn, and is in the process of expanding the number to register online offers across a variety of programs and offers.
How has the Covid crisis affected campus placement?
In the early months of the Covid crisis, there was uncertainty around placements and further apprehensions on both sides of placement activities. There have been some unfortunate incidents where companies were forced to withdraw their placement offers across campus. With the opening of the economy the situation began to change slowly and in recent months there has been a very good recovery and this has been reflected in the campus placement. The use of remote and video-conferencing technology to run placement processes has transformed Kashipur’s so-called location difficulties into a seek-out choice as our graduates bring a different experience and immerse themselves in the real world which increases employment.
Are we seeing more female students come into management studies? What steps have you taken to ensure this?
The social change in accepting women as career-builders has also begun to show in management education and the number of female students has increased across the program offerings. IIM Kashipur has performed very well on gender diversity in recent years and we are proud to have one of the highest proportion of female students across IIM. Emphasizing the importance of women’s participation in the management domain, IIM Kashipur’s Board of Governors approved an excessive quota for female candidates. However, due to the increase in the number of female candidates in the last few years, there was no need to end the quota. In fact, an impressive 49 percent of female students enrolled in MBA (Analytics) batches have broken the myth that there are very few female candidates for quantitative-based careers. Much of this achievement has been based on the development of culture, sensitivity and awareness building, and the efforts together have turned into a meaningful proposal.
How have government initiatives and programs affected business schools?
Government initiatives and programs have the potential to have a profound effect on business schools. It all depends on how the business school is prepared to engage in such initiatives and programs. IIM Kashipur charts a vision and mission related to the real situation
India and its position have ensured that government programs and initiatives will be important for the organization. Our centers have received generous grants and funding from the government to contribute to the special mission of the government. Today, IIM Kashipur can be proud of being the only Design Innovation Center at IIM and an agribusiness, technology and tourism-centric incubator. Through the Startup India program, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and Government of Uttarakhand. The Foundation for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (FIED) at IIM Kashipur is the only incubator that focuses on these issues at IIMs and has already incubated hundreds of startups and some have been invested by various organizations.
What advice would you give to bring equality with the education system of developed countries?
The current National Education Policy (NEP) is an attempt to bring the education system of the country on par with the education system of developed countries. IIMs have a special role to play outside NEP in engaging with real problems and innovating to create solutions to these problems affecting the soil. By doing so, we may not only be able to come closer, but we will be able to surpass the education system of developed countries in a way that is meaningful for global humanity and human civilization.
Any predictions for the future of management studies in India.
IIM Kashipur agrees that the future of management studies in India will move towards specialization and we will soon see the offer of more specialization-based education. However, due to the unchanging mix of quantitative, analytical, social, economic and value-based education that an MBA can offer, the MBA will remain a strong offer in Southeast Asia, even if it starts to lose some of its brilliance. Western world. The future will see an increasing shift towards online learning, but the difference will be the ability to create recognized premiums and graduates for on-campus programs who can solve real-world problems while creating, implementing and implementing new initiatives within or through existing organizations. Own entrepreneurial journey. IIM Kashipur is committed to creating such graduates through its focused education offers.