'Our Students Will Be War Horses, Ready For Industry 4.0'

Dr S.K. Mahapatra, Director, Jaipuria School of Business, Ghaziabad, is associated with Jaipuria School of Business since July 2016 where he is shaping the institute's vision while setting up an environment of learning and transformation. He is a mentor to many successful alumni and professionals in management field.

Set up by the Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions in 2008 under the aegis of the Seth Anandram Jaipuria Education Society, the Institute is one of the emerging business schools in Delhi NCR with 100% campus placement.

In an interview with BW Businessworld, he spoke about the core values, placemenets scenario and innovative methods of teaching.

Q. What are the core values of Jaipuria School of Business? What makes it any different from MBA colleges in the country?

Empower, Enthuse and Excel, are the three core values of Jaipuria School of Business.

1. We empower students by providing them opportunity to learn and practice managerial skills while in campus

2. We inculcate the spirit of Enthusiam in each student by providing a learning environment that allows students to learn with fun.

3. We have designed our curriculum and pedagogy in a unique manner to help each and every student get a head start and excel in career


Q. Do you have any exchange programme tie-ups with international universities?
Yes, we have signed an MOU with UCMO, Missouri in 2017 for student exchange.


Q: What is the percentage of international students at the moment? What initiatives are you taking to attract the international students?
The program is likely to commence in August - September, with UCMO, Missouri. The details are being worked out at both ends.


Q How has the placement scenario been? Are students' satisfied, average salaries over the years, PPOs, etc.? Pl elaborate on the kind of companies and salaries that are offered at your college.
We have achieved 100% campus placements for consecutive years including the current batch due for passing out in June 2018. Our students come from average background but our process of training them has been extremely successful in placing all as per their ability. The average salary in current batch is Rs.4.63 lakh per annum and the highest salary is Rs.7 lakh per annum.  Companies like Barclays Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Securities, Ceasefire, India Bulls, Bajaj Finance, Tata Capital Housing Finance, Tommy Hilfiger, Modi Naturals, Just Dial, Coffee day Beverages etc. have recruited the current batch from our Campus. Many of our Summer Interns get PPOs.

In terms of ROI, our students have the opportunity to earn more than their total fees for the two year program.

Q: What kind of extra weightage you are offering to increase gender diversity?
We are proud to have maintain almost 50:50 gender ratio in our Campus. We don’t do it consciously but we provide a safe and equal opportunity environment in our Campus which has evolved into a perfect diversity in our Campus. Our students also come from different states in India and from diverse socio-economic background. Our reputation in assured placement help students to gain easy access to Bank Finance for education. We have liberal scholarships for meritorious, economically weaker sections and for wards of active or ex-servicemen.

Q: How you train students to face challenging role in the corporate world?
As an autonomous PGDM campus, AICTE has given us the flexibility to design the syllabus and pedagogy that best suits the Industry. We have an outcome based learning approach and we are positively biased towards 'Practice" without compromising the theoretical core. We have identified five distinct areas for practicing for excellence as core competencies for sustainable success in future, and we have set up five interdependent Centers around this idea. These are Center for Change & Development, Center for Diversity & Inclusion, Center for Creativity & Innovation, Center for Advanced Data Analytics and Center for Leadership Excellence. All co-curricular and extra-curricular activities are conducted under the Aggies of these Centers and students are given a free hand to ideate and implement.

Q: What kind of extra-curricular activities are students involved in? How important do you think these activities are in an overall personality development?
We have a campus that is abuzz with extra-curricular activities round the year and these are chronicled well in our monthly newsletters since August 2016. A few examples will suffice. Our students have conducted street plays on 'Farmers' right to live with Dignity', 'Save the Girl Child Campaign' and spent quality time among slum children to celebrate Diwali with a Difference by teaching them artistic occupational skills for value addition. Our students regularly take part in Swach Bharat mission, and Plantation Campaigns.

Q: Explain the innovative education methods used by Jaipuria School of Business.
We firmly believe that "Practice" is the strength behind "Theory". We try to create as much opportunities as we can for students to interact with practitioners through our CXO Talk program in campus, conferences and conclaves we organise for such exposures, and by sending our students for Industry Visits, and Live Internship Projects of short duration, conducting Immersion workshops on cutting-age technology (know-how and do-how). Going ahead, we are preparing our students for Industry 4.0 by adopting Education 4.0 in our curriculum for 2018-20. Horses are made for courses. Our students will be war horses, ready for Industry 4.0.