Dear All,
Greetings!
Please find below an article forwarded by Sri Virendra Goel.
Regards @ Bholanath
Are the Tier 2 MBA Colleges losing the plot ?
samar kagalwalla
I write this as a keen observer and supporter of good education, in particular at post graduation level.
Recently I have had a chance to interact with some students from MBA institutes in Mumbai. If I may expand a bit, Tier 2 institutes ( I myself is a pass out from one such institute some 6 yrs back )
I direct my observations towards students, professors & alumni - their roles & expectations
Let me begin with our young friends - Students. There is a tremendous expectation gap.
In all my interactions with them, I have only heard terms like " placements ", " packages ", " roles " etc from them.
My question to them was very simple - Convince me about your skills , confidence to deliver and knowledge to give you the above things. And there I was exposed to " generalization ". " lack of confidence", " half knowledge " and usual " Student Cribbing".
GAP 1 - Individual Fit v/s Placements
For me everything boils down to ones attitude. One can be fresher by experience, but not by knowledge & confidence. One can be part of a Tier 2 institute, but its up to self to get the best out of the college. One can be exposed to 'n' number of corporate interactions but it will be futile if one has closed down his / her mind.
I was zapped to hear from my interactions that students attend a seminar and come out complaining that we did not understand the jargon's used by the speaker. My reaction was " Did you ask ? " and i again got blank faces. " Did you Google once your were out of the seminar ? " and I was explained that we could not take notes as we did not understand ? . . . Are we hear to learn - unlearn - learn or just " de-learn "
I was doing a small workshop with batch of 4 - 5 students. And I could see fear of attending interviews. To boost their morale I gave them a small exercise which was " Speak about your passion for 5 mins" All of them struggled - lack of confidence, no content and more importantly lack of passion in speaking about their passion.
Still I gave them benefit of doubt and insisted that they prepare about the same topic and speak again after 7 days. The effort was of no use as they I got similar response. On my inquiry with the students I got one more shocker : " We have never in our years of studies got an opportunity to speak on such a topic " . . I said this is not a topic, it is your passion . . .
A simple advice as a fresh post graduate - Get passionate about things in life . . If you not passionate, why will companies hire you for any role. Every role these days require only passion . . rest all is monotonous !
Let me target a educationists a bit and I beg your pardon . . my observation and comments are only for improvement of "we students"
GAP 2 - Creating good decision makers
I am of a great believer that teachers make or break students. They create opportunities for you to take decisions and build confidence. However I found student being indecisive.
Expose them to on ground realities. Students starve to know practical application of theories. I have had feedback from students that " Sir please can you let us know how exactly is a corporate work culture ? . . can you let us know roles in different sectors ? . . Can we know where do we get good cases besides Harvard & ICFAI " . . if these questions are being asked a month before their placement starts, I blame the educationists equally.
Students will expect that their placements should happen, but as a educationists I feel there should be evaluation as to how much have you prepared them. I have come across comments like " We are told take up any job and change in 6 - 12 months ".... Is this a tick mark item ? .. Aren't you encouraging indecisiveness
I am not compelling you to hand hold them, but become mentors. Be accessible to students so that he can be free to express his views to you ( good or bad ). Encourage practical training and work out modules for dialogues . .
GAP 3 - Contribution of alumni to the success
Alumni are the marketing arm of a successful institute. Hence it is a bilateral agreement which college should have - continuous improvement and program delivery from their side & brand building of the institute amongst the stake holders by the pass out . . .
Being an alumni let me take a snip at some of my counterparts. Its been my observation, barring select few, this community of individuals believe that the institute ( because it is tier 2 ) has not role in his / her career development or as being a successful professional. The feeling is as if it was a big favor they did to the institution by taking admissions. And when such individuals interact with the bunch of future MBA's, they develop the same feeling amongst them. I have always discussed the same with deans and HOD's of colleges to get the right alumni to face the students. There is anyways enough negativity, and it is only the positivity that an alumni brings to the students, which leads to the spark.
Have more alumni meets, which will create ground for corporate interaction. And engage the alumni's at regular intervals with various initiatives of an institute, so that there is a connect which continues to remain forever.
To conclude, at end of my interactive sessions, i felt sad that in spite of having such a bundle of talents, MBA as a course lacks channelization of energy. If we can work towards the same, our education system will be a exciting and a rewarding place to be in.
I may have sounded sarcastic and frustrated, but it was important I highlight certain basic gaps which can be addressed in particularly by so called Tier 2 MBA colleges.
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