The Higher Education Review

Located in an enchanting hill station, Vagamon in Idukki district of Kerala, DC School of Management & Technology (DCS MAT) is known to be the first fully residential management institution in Kerela. Inaugurated in 2002, the institution owns a vibrant campus where both the students and the faculty members are provided with modern facilities amidst the pleasing environment to make their stay productive. “We follow ‘Gurukulam’ model where the students and faculty members stay together and aim to attain holistic development in synchronizing with the modern infrastructure,” says Brig. M. C. Ashok Kumar, Group Director, DC School of Management & Technology. Affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University, DCS MAT offers a full-time two-year MBA degree, which is designed to provide the students an exposure to an international system of business learning. Training in IBM software and SAP ERP are also provided to interested students.

The teaching process, which the institution follows, is a thorough mixture of experiential learning and case studies, as learning for management students is all about learning through experiencing. At DCS MAT, the students are treated as business leaders and confront with the similar challenges on a regular basis. They are made enable to solve critical business issues through special live projects directly from the industry.

“We live in a technological era and making the right use of this we have adopted a Course Management System called ‘Moodle’, where the learning materials, assignments and results are uploaded,” shares Brig. Ashok Kumar. Moodle also acts as the forum for receiving feedback from the students on the guest and permanent faculty.

Making an Impact beyond the Four Walls
Having the largest pool of IIM trained faculty members who have already completed their PhD or in the verge of the completion, DCS MAT has successfully undertaken many teaching replicas, which are hardly been practiced by any other B-school in the region. Every teacher is assigned to 5-10 students for providing 24x7 mentorship, which is called as Student Ownership Programme (SOP) to the students in the campus. The students are motivated to participate in self-development programmes like training in communication, leadership, making presentations, mock interviews and so on, considering soft skill as one of the most important elements for MBA graduates. “As the motto is to improve the academia and industry relation, which will eventually result in better placement of the students, we have chosen to adopt all the techniques required for the upliftment of the same,” shares Brig. Ashok Kumar. The out-of-the-box initiative by the institution ‘Coffee with CEOs’ has substantially left a greater impression of students in front of the industry leaders through the fruitful communication during the interaction. Another endeavor by the institution is the exclusive training programme, “Introduction of Academics to Career (A2C)” ensuring the smooth transition from academics to career by providing training both in special skills and in academics. “There is a huge difference in leading a student and professional life. To bridge this gap, we have introduced this programme named A2C to our students where they are shaped into industry-ready and play their roles effectively in their respective job places,” explains Brig. Ashok Kumar.

An Assurance of a Brighter Future Maintaining a healthy academia-industry relation has become the need of the hour for every B-school where there is cut-throat competition in the job market. Anticipating this need, DCS MAT has entrenched Industry-Institute Interaction Cell that works relentlessly to conduct more panel discussions and similar programmes where the industry experts visit the campus and share their knowledge and experiences with the budding professionals and the entrepreneurs. Over the years, the institution has built good rapport with industrial forums like CII, KMA, TiE Kerela and so on. Besides this, the institution also organizes gatherings like talks by CEO’s/ Managers; Meet the CEO where both the students and the institution endure the beneficial side. The institution also has tie-ups with corporate like Quick Silver Ltd, IBM, SAP, just to name a few. Emphasizing imparting education out of the classroom and with the industry oriented teaching-learning techniques; the institution has been able to place its students in top companies around the world. “We hold the pride of ensuring our students 100 percent placement and subsequently, looking forward to raising the standard of the institution to a global level in coming years,” concludes Brig. Ashok Kumar.