The Higher Education Review

Established in the year 2005, under the banner of Seshadripuram Educational Trust, catering to the needs of Commerce and Management education with strong academic ethics in pursuit of Excellence in imparting the quality education. Institution is guided by well-known social activist and Philanthropist Dr. Wooday P Krishna Honorary General Secretary Seshadripuram Educational Trust, is the recipient of coveted Indian Red Cross Gold Medal, the highest national award for humanitarian service from the President of India.

Seshadripuram Institute of Commerce and Management is a hallmark of quality education. It nurtures the holistic development of the students complementing academics with the extracurricular activities. SICM kindles the joy of learning, being truthful and tolerant which are the essential values for a sustainable life.

The college is affiliated to Bengaluru City University which provides limited scope of autonomy in designing the curriculum, the institution designs syllabus with a well-defined protocol with an appointment of Board of Studies to the subjects where the autonomy is provided, institution placement team works in tandem with the industry experts and alumni achievers through their constant input curriculum for value added programs is designed internally, in total 180 hours of training for placement is provided as a part of curriculum mandatorily dividing in to 30 hours per semester which has contributed significantly to the students in enriching their capabilities in proving their worth to be recruited in the companies.

The Institution adopts itself to the learning mechanism designed by the thoughts of United Kingdom and United States designed differently under various semesters of BBA course. By assessing students through memory based, skill based and situation-based evaluation designed to suit the curriculum with clear cut communicated nomenclature makes this institution different from other Business School. The major benefits the institute offers can be broadly termed as the process of identification of student in terms of their future goals with regard to higher education or employment or

entrepreneurship through a strong mentoring by the mentors/ faculty members. Relevant subject experts' talks, seminars and orientations are constantly arranged which are helpful to the student in achieving the future targets.

Industry expects job ready professionals which puts additional responsibility on the part of the institution in grooming the students to meet industry requirements, there is a shift in recruitment process from traditional one on one or panel interviews to online interviews, college does provide training for hybrid interview skills to be enrich students to meet the changing scenarios and institute corresponds with sufficient technological requirements to ensure that the opportunity is not lost to the students. Further, to groom the students, the institution runs many of the certificate courses like SAP, Tally, MS Excel, digital marketing and so on throughout the year.

The College focuses on its faculty, their development, by encouraging them to be more research oriented which enriches the students learning experience. Some of the faculties are members of the Board of Studies. Faculties have enrolled themselves for the doctoral studies. As we work under the mode of affiliation to BCU, we have limited opportunity to frame the syllabus; we complement it with our supplementary Value-added Programs, Certificate courses. We work on inclusions of more of MOUs with the providers of skill-based training. The institute's relationship with industries through tie ups and MoUs ensures holistic education to be imparted in the students. The renowned organizations like NICT, Internshala, IBM, Tata Consultancy and others are having tie ups with the institute in order to provide opportunities of internships and various courses.

For a student, SICM becomes a prime destination for a simple fact that socially responsible citizens are created along with providing the required inputs to make them the most wanted candidate in whichever areas they choose, right from providing the curriculum content, improving their communication skills, analytical skills, research skills, soft skills, specialization skills sufficient activities are undertaken by the institution through 28 functional committees that are set up at the institution level. Student can make the choice based on the interest and upgrade himself to reach great heights.

For recruiters, with the above qualities the choice of finding the right candidate would not be difficult; institution trains its students not only for the current but also for the future. With Holistic education factors like loyalty and honesty can be

assured from the institution end, performance indicators are quite stringent at the institution level which can be taken as a benchmark by the recruiters to select the best candidate. The College has centralized placements managed by the Management for all the Seshadripuram Institutions. We work towards creating employable graduates, with all the necessary grooming through the Value-added Programs.

Talking about the roadmap, Dr. Wooday P. Krishna highlights "SICM will always keep its vision to its forefront and will strive towards providing responsive, significant and eternal learning".

Two important factors modify our strategy making for the present academic year. Two major influences of the decade are Covid -19, its universal disturbance, its academic adaptations to hybrid learning and the National Education Policy-20 which is implemented in the present academic year. The institution is heading towards the Second cycle of NAAC, we plan to score a better grade than the one achieved in the first cycle. Similarly, we are one among the noted Commerce and Management colleges within the state as well as the affiliated colleges in the NIRF ranking. Raising our ranking in this survey too is an area we will work upon.

The institution shall strive towards excellence in higher education by offering our students value based programs which are multidisciplinary in nature. The college will strive to match up with global benchmarks with respect to educational facilities, physical infrastructure and research environment. Through this approach we prepare our students to be ready for the global challenges. The college will organize academic activities focused on the identification of the unique learner's ability, talent, commitment and devotion.

We inculcate a culture of research among the students. To make the learning more meaningful, we create more industrial and academic linkages. We give our students a rich exposure by organizing more of expert talks from the relevant fields. The Business lab with its various activities like case studies analysis, tie-ups with the trainers for the skill set building focus on developing entrepreneurial skills, and holistic education to all with an affordable fee structure. We have adopted a learner centric model, encourage students to be life-long learners, provide them the choice of entry and exit from the system with certificates. We enhance the pedagogical techniques ­ blended learning, flipped classroom, experiential and participative learning."