– Prof. G V Muralidhara, Director, ICFAI Business School (IBS), Bangalore

ICFAI Business School Bangalore, established in 1995, is housed in a spacious 22-acre campus near Kengeri, with all requisite infrastructure and facilities. Bangalore is home to the IT services industry, the pride of India, and a flourishing base for innovative start-ups. IBS benefits from access to a large pool of entrepreneurs and corporate professionals in the city. Most of the students are happy to start their careers in Bangalore, where abundant opportunities and dynamism co-exist.

IBS Bangalore is now an off-campus center of ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE), a deemed-to-be university headquartered at Hyderabad. IBS Bangalore offers a full-time two year MBA program as well as a BBA program.

The mission of ICFAI Business School is to develop ethically-grounded professional managers who can add value to organizations and communities, in a dynamic environment. The School promotes high-quality learning experience, in an adaptive environment, with a focus on relevance, rigor and research.

The unique feature of IBS is that it has strong systems and processes in place, which enable it to instil its students with the requisite skills and capabilities in an effective manner. At the same time, IBS is flexible and adaptable to situations. It is innovative, and keeps on making changes and improvements in keeping with the times. The institution has been working on modifying the curriculum in line with the guidelines of the new education policy.

New courses and disciplines are added to the curriculum quite regularly, in consultation with the industry. We were one of the early ones to include Analytics as a full-fledged discipline, with a bouquet of electives; and this was about a decade ago. Likewise, digital marketing has been a popular subject and a source of interesting careers for many of our students. In recent times, we have added contemporary electives such as FinTech.

In addition, certification courses are conducted on various new age topics such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Data Visualization with Power BI, Data Protection and Cyber Security. All the students go through a certification course in Advanced Excel which is an essential skill demanded by the industry. The students also go through live projects and job -focused certification courses offered by companies that lead to pre-placement offers for students who perform well in these. In addition, the institution facilitates students to upgrade their skills in emerging areas on the Future Skills Prime platform of NASSCOM. Students are also encouraged to take up certification courses on their own, and the institute subsidizes part of the cost. The students get the opportunity to network with their peer group from other institutions as well as industry experts through membership in the campus chapter of the Analytics Society of India. All these make the students ready to take on available job opportunities in modern-day disciplines, which are coming up in a big way.

The institute also encourages and facilitates in developing interest towards learning and acquiring skills among students by providing certificates, prizes, arranging competitions and ‘hackathons’, offering assistantships, etc., so that this expression of interest becomes natural.

The curriculum followed by IBS is contemporary and is designed with active participation by industry, so that it meets with practical requirements. What also makes a significant difference thereafter is the way the courses are delivered and evaluated. Student-centric learning is used as the prime driver, rather than faculty-centred teaching. Faculty’s role is seen as that of a facilitator. Students go through an experiential learning process through a variety of routes such as case studies, interactive videos, practice-oriented assignments and a host of self-learning materials created by IBS faculty, supplemented with industry visits and projects given by industry.

Students can join any of several clubs based on their interests and activities such as photography, sports, social responsibility and public speaking, to name a few. The students primarily run these clubs with the guidance of a faculty member. They form close bonds with one another outside the classroom through peer connect. Of special mention is an inter-college management fest that the students organize and conduct with great zeal & zest. The students get real lessons in management through such events with generous support from the institution.

The COVID pandemic that struck the entire world, brought with it a wave of challenges. ICFAI Business School responded to the challenges with a positive outlook and quickly adapted itself to the new situation. None of our activities were delayed or affected by the pandemic.

Recruiters come back to us year after year as they find our students industry ready – both by way of subject knowledge, and also in their attitude and soft skills. We have an extensive soft skills curriculum spread across three semesters. Further, a 12-week summer internship between the first and second years and with active involvement and guidance by a company guide as well as a faculty guide, makes this a good substitute for practical work experience, especially for freshers. Further, short duration live projects are also encouraged.

In recent times, recruiters are focusing more on the skill sets of the students than on the marks/grades. Though marks/grades are sometimes used as basic eligibility criteria, the skill sets that the students can bring to the table, become the final selection criteria. Therefore, the institution focuses on the development of appropriate skills in addition to the knowledge and the right attitude.

Many of our students also move on to be successful entrepreneurs. Some start afresh, while others bring in new insights and grow their family businesses. We have an elective on Entrepreneurship Management and also an incubation cell that guides our alumni through this process.

We have a large alumni network and a strong connect with the industry. Faculty members update themselves about latest developments in industry through regular interactions with industry professionals, both formally and informally. Experts from the industry also address and guide our students as guest faculty, as professional mentors and through engagement in various activities of the Institute.

The roadmap ahead is that IBS will continue to follow a robust system and process, and at the same time be innovative and agile. This will enable it to produce high quality management graduates, who can add value to the organizations that they join and also build a good career for themselves. IBS Bangalore remains firmly committed to transforming the students as they enter a new phase in their lives as young adults waiting in the wings to take up professional responsibilities.

Also read: The Amplification Effect through Project Based Learning: ICFAI’s Online MBA Program