The Higher Education Review

Management education has now entered a phase of profound transition driven by globalization, technology, demographics and pressing social imperatives. A B-school should symbolize professionalism, flexibility in learning, innovations in curriculum design and pedagogy, encouraging research culture and above all – value for money.

Even though new B-schools are entering the market day by day, a lot of them lack quality of education, placements and research culture. This is where Rajagiri Business School is different from the others. Due to their quality of education and pedagogical innovation known as Rajagiri Immersive Learning Methodology Experience, the institute was able to be ranked 9th position in Ideas Repec last year due to their Finance and Economics research contributions.

Some B-Schools are not sufficiently in touch with the real world and the pace of change in the industry which ultimately reflects in the placements. Whereas Rajagiri has initiated an Assessment Development Centre (ADC) program where a group of HR managers from renowned companies come down to campus and assess their first-year students individually on various attributes needed by a budding manager.

Standing Apart from the Rest
Rajagiri group of institutions was established as a result of the indefatigable industry foresight of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), the first indigenous Catholic congregation for men in India, dedicated themselves to education at all levels. The College had its origin as pioneers in professional social work education starting with a Diploma in social service way back in 1955 and adding on Masters in Social Work (MSW), the first of its kind in South India.

The institute operates with the mission to develop socially responsible and holistic leadership in a supportive learning environment. “Our curriculum is designed in a way that in the students’ graduate

outcome attributes social sensitivity and integrity play a vital role. We always focus on the holistic development of the students which helps them to become a great corporate as well as a good social being. We believe education can happen beyond classrooms also.

As a part of that, we developed unique activities such as Rural Sensitisation Camp - A weeklong program aimed at inculcating social sensitivity among students, thereby encouraging them to creatively address the social issues around them. Also, Kalypso Outbound Training Programme (OBT) is designed to bring out management skills like planning, organizing, decision making, communication, team building and adaptability in the students”, speaks Fr. Francis Sebastian CMI, Assistant Director, Rajagiri Business School.

Rajagiri Business School offers MBA and PGDM programs and the institute always tries to incorporate the valuable suggestions received from companies and alumni fraternity into their curriculum. Corporates visit their campus as visiting faculty, for providing mentoring sessions, evaluate students through Assessment Development Centre (ADC) activity, as panellist for student’s internship viva, placements, live projects, consultancy, attend various conferences, workshops and seminars, as trainers for certification programs such as Business Analytics courses run by KPMG and many more.

Students at Rajagiri also do Industry visits, Internships, part-time jobs and attend sessions hosted by various management communities such as CII, FICCI, KMA, NIPM, and NHRDN to name a few. As a policy, Rajagiri students have to compulsorily do the internship outside their place of residence thus paving the way for familiarising with the new environment. The institute also offers teaching with simulation from Harvard Business Publishing and Cesim, Bloomberg finance lab, Pearson-Vue language lab, regular case study discussions and Business updates sessions.

Growing from Strength to Strength
Rajagiri Business School has an agreement with KPMG to provide Business Analytics course with certification which is very beneficial for students. Also, they have association with online platforms such as Coursera and SWAYAM from MHRD to provide online courses which are relevant

for students and easy to access in the time of this Covid-19 pandemic.

At Rajagiri, campus recruitment often involves working with university career services centres and attending career fairs to meet in-person with college students and recent graduates. Some industries participate in campus recruiting more than others such as finance, technology, business consulting, manufacturing and engineering are a few of the most popular.

The institute has seen various milestones and achievements over the course of many decades and adding about some of those achievements and future plans, Fr. Francis says, “Rajagiri is ranked 2nd Best clean college in India on Residential college category by Swachh Campus Ranking 2019 of Higher Educational Institutions, Government of India.

Rajagiri is awarded 3rd Best in the country by AICTE – Utkrisht Sansthan Vishwakarma Award 2020 for its Covid-19 relief activities. Our college is ranked Platinum continuously for the last 3 years in AICTE-CII Survey. Due to our high NIRF ranking we are one among the few colleges in India selected by MHRD to be the part of Study in India program by EDCIL. We have also received international accreditations such as ACBSP: Accredited from 2017 onwards, AACSB Business Education Alliance Member, EFMD Member, NBA: Accredited till 2022, NIRF: 76-100 band in 2020, Awarded ‘Platinum’ rating in 2017,2018,2019 in AICTECII Survey, and ranked 12th best B-School by both Education World 2020 Survey and Times B-School Survey 2020 to name a few.

As far as the future goes, we are aiming to constantly improve and our office of international relations is trying to spread across all the continents. By doing that we are in way to be known as the best and most prominent B-School in India”.

Fr. Francis Sebastian CMI, Assistant Director, Rajagiri Business School
Francis is very active in youth animation, pastoral care and academic endeavours. He has organized two national level Prolife Mini marathons in Bangalore and Vellore respectively. As an effective orator, organizer, youth animator and creative administrator, he commands lots of appreciation from various walks of life. He has also presented papers in various national and international level conferences.