Today, most management schools in the country face structural challenges. Quality infrastructure, ICT capabilities, investments in licensed databases and knowledge resources, qualified faculty, industry relevant curriculum and industry institute partnerships are some of the major pain points that most business schools come across and undoubtedly, the schools that surmount these challenges sustain and succeed. Set up in 1995, when management education was still in a nascent stage in India, ICFAI Business School (IBS), Hyderabad aspires ‘to offer high quality management programs that equip students with the right knowledge, skills and attitudes required to succeed in a dynamic world’.
Since its inception, ICFAI Business School (IBS), Hyderabad has looked at scale and scope economies to address the large demand supply gap for quality management education. Renowned for offering innovative and globally accepted programs and great opportunities for all-round development of students, today, the institute boasts of one of the largest campuses in India with an annual intake of 1250 students in the MBA program. With its 100 percent casebased learning, ICFAI Business School (IBS), Hyderabad attracts a diversity of student population which is ensured with a ratio of 52: 48 ratio of female and male students from all the 29 states of India.
Addressing the gaps within management education space, ICFAI Business School (IBS), Hyderabad ensures that the school’s resources and capabilities are directed to effectively overcome the challenges emerging from time to time. With continuous disruptions within the industry, IBS reserves its rights to revise its curriculum which meets the industry requirements and makes students future-ready. Striving towards this, IBS Hyderabad is amongst one of the first business schools to launch core and elective courses in Analytics, Digital Marketing, Marketing Technology, Agile HR to name a few. All the right skills and knowledge that are demanded by the recruiters can be found in graduates of IBS Hyderabad.
Emphasizing on Experiential Learning
IBS Hyderabad has always been at the forefront of designing and implementing an industry relevant curriculum. The curriculum is uniquely designed and offers students the flexibility of choosing courses across domain areas such as Finance, HR, Marketing and Operations. Students are required to take eighteen core courses in Year 1 and eight elective courses in Year 2 totalling to 102 credits. The choice of elective courses is left to the student thereby allowing him/ her to specialize in the area that recruiters look for.
“The uniqueness of the courses offered depends on the review process followed by the school for revision and launch of new courses. The Courses are reviewed every semester and the faculty teaching group concerned identifies the gaps in content, keeping the industry requirements in mind, after getting inputs from Course Instructors, students, alumni, senior academicians, and industry experts. The curricula covers on an average 8 percent of Local, 45 percent of National, 6 percent of Regional and 42 percent of Global perspectives. The Departmental Review Committee (DRC) approves and forwards the proposal to the Board of Studies (BOS). After approval from the BOS, the proposal is placed before the Academic Council (AC) for approval and forwarded to Board of Management (BOM) for statutory approvals. The revised curricula/ new course is then introduced/ launched. The process of curricula revision and introduction of new courses based on industry requirements ensures that about 95 percent of students who opt for placement are successfully placed in different organizations. The average salary package of students has grown over the years and reflects the confidence recruiters’ repose in our graduates”, briefs Prof. J Mahender Reddy, Vice Chancellor, ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education.
With the growing emphasis on experiential learning, IBS strives to ensure that the students don’t just get theoretical knowledge but also know how to apply them. As a result, ICFAI Business School has adopted ‘Case Method of Teaching’ which uniquely prepares students to become industry ready. Nearly all the classes at IBS are powered with real world cases, which help the students develop vital skills. Prof. J Mahender Reddy shares, “We are the first institution in India to institutionalize a case development imitative. Today, our IBS Case Research Centre is counted among the world’s top case publishing centres along with Harvard, INSEAD, IMD, and others. IBS is also one of the top three contributors of cases to the UK-based independent home of the case method, The Case Centre. The cases produced at IBS not only cater to the needs of our own students but are also used in thousands of schools globally. Many of our cases are worldwide bestsellers in their subject areas, and the centre consistently wins awards in prestigious international competitions. In fact, The Case Centre’s No.1 bestselling author is from IBS every year since 2016. The fact that IBS cases are used in the tops business schools in the world also means that our students are taught with the same cases that are taught in these top global schools.”
“IBS Hyderabad has always been at the forefront of designing and implementing an industry relevant curriculum”
Nevertheless, IBS also uses Harvard cases in its MBA program, so that the students are exposed to a diverse set of cases, so that they can become wellrounded professionals. The skilled faculty members of IBS Hyderabad also employ active learning strategies such as discussions, individual and group presentations, buzz groups, role plays, and more so that the students learn by actively participating in the classroom.
A Notch above All
Ranked 25th among the business schools in India by NIRF, Ministry of Education, Government of India, IBS is accredited by the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), USA a distinction achieved by only a few business schools in India. Some of the other accreditations of IBS include the South Asia Quality Improvement System (SAQS) by the Association of Management Development Institutes of South Asia (AMDISA).
IBS endeavours to provide one of the best student’s educational experience and works for overall development of its graduates. Quality of graduates and creating career paths for them is one of the primary goals of the institute. IBS also offers a unique doctoral program that produces high quality research scholars and research publications. This program ensures supply of management teachers to the institutes. Students who have completed this doctoral program are currently working in top business schools in India and abroad.
IBS Hyderabad, over the years has emerged as one of the leading business schools in the country delivering quality management education. The institute has been consistently ranked amongst the top institutes in the country in surveys conducted by leading agencies and in the top 25 institutes in the country as assessed by the National Institutional Ranking Framework. Believing in creating the right ambience and processes since inception, ICFAI is preferred by all India student audience as the prime destination for learning and by corporate for hiring.
An educational institution is as good as its teachers. Hence, IBS actively recruits, trains, nurtures and retains quality faculty members for long term sustenance of its academic and research programs. Distinguished faculty members bring in innovative educational methodologies, creative course content and deliver curriculum with passion and commitment. Involved in intensive research work leading to publication of valuable research output in international journals, the faculty members of IBS also participate in international and national conferences organized by reputed institutions. Various departments also conduct national and international conferences, colloquia, research seminars, workshops and more. IBS conducts an annual doctoral thesis conference inviting research scholars from across India for showcasing their research work and for promoting research culture. Further, faculty members are also involved in writing case studies on contextual themes from the business. Such case studies are published by the Case Centre, UK after due process. Faculty members are also involved in guiding the research scholars on contemporary research themes which will equip them with the latest body of knowledge.
“The institute has been consistently ranked amongst the top institutes in the country in surveys conducted by leading agencies in the top 25 institutes in the country”
Making Students Career Ready
IBS has been building market relevant competencies among the students to make them career ready. Students acquire managerial competencies such as interpersonal communication, valuing diversity, planning, problem solving, critical thinking, persuasion, time management, and stress management among others. They also acquire domain specific competencies in analytics. Students learn skills in application software for decision making. Students of MBA go through hands-on experiential learning during a three month rigorous internship supervised by company and a faculty member of the IBS. The internship exposes them to corporate environment and enables them to make an in-depth study and apply conceptual knowledge in finding solution to problems.
Besides their core curriculum, IBS students go through a Unique Syndicated Learning Program (SLP) right from Semester I where they are trained in analytical tools such as Excel and SAS besides taking a test in English Proficiency. In semester II students are given inputs in current affairs, industry analysis, review of books and use of analytical tools. In semester III, the SLP covers a revision of frequently asked questions, workshops on Interview and resume writing, mock group discussions and Personal Interviews. More than 200 industry executives and alumni participate in this Placement readiness program. Besides these, the school invites senior alumni and industry executives to deliver talks/ engage in panel discussions on the current trends and emerging business scenarios. Students are also trained in specific job-related skills in the areas of Finance, Insurance, Digital Marketing, Marketing Technology, Platform Businesses and Analytics to name a few. This encourages industry participation by inviting senior executives for guest lectures and mentoring sessions.
“While we make students industry-ready, we also play an active role in fostering student’s interest in entrepreneurship. We encourage students to participate in ideation camps and hackathons organized by the Institution's Innovation Council (IIC)in which select ideas are put through a pre-incubation program for curating their ideas. Curated ideas are then filtered at the end of the pre-incubation program to be incubated as start-ups. IBS provides a support grant for students working towards their own start-ups. This grant is usually utilised for procuring components and for providing expert support services for the incubated start-ups. It is a matter of great satisfaction that the support services for the incubated start-ups pertaining to technology, legal, regulatory, marketing, accounting and finance, branding are mostly met from IBS’s internal resources, augmented by external experts. The IBS also connects with and brings in its vast network of alumni to act as mentors to students who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs”, elaborates Prof. J Mahender Reddy.
Charting the Path Ahead
IBS attracts admissions from all states of our country making it one of the most diverse campuses in terms of culture and languages. Academically, the students are from diversified educational backgrounds ranging from engineering, commerce, sciences, arts, and others. A combination of students with work experience and fresher add another dimension of diversity. Thus, students experience diversity in their campus life and learn respecting diverse cultures.
IBS Hyderabad strongly believes in following its mission of imparting the right knowledge, skills and attitudes that can help students adapt to an ever-changing business environment. The school has made significant investments in creating diverse learning platforms and processes that cater to meeting the challenges of today’s dynamic industry environment. Its 100 acre totally Wi-Fi enabled campus permits students to connect to the virtual world anytime. Its vast collection of electronic resources and databases ensures that the latest updates from the world are available at the click of a button. Overall personality and leadership skills are developed through the thirty odd student clubs that organize curricular and extracurricular activities.
Even now, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, ICFAI Business School is able to run engaging online classes using real world cases for almost every class. Faculty members at IBS have also quickly adapted to ‘teaching with cases’ online, thus ensuring that the students get all the benefits of the case method from the safety of their home. What’s more, IBS is supporting online teaching with cases in many other schools in India and abroad. Hundreds of business schools from across the world are using IBS cases to power their online classes.
Known for its readiness and adaptability to change, ICFAI Business School’s growth over the last 25 years is indicative of this adaptability and its processes and capabilities ensure the continuity. A proof of this readiness is visible in its recognition at the global and national level. IBS was the 14th business school in India to have secured the prestigious AACSB accreditation and the institute has led independent surveys which have ranked the school in the top 25 business schools within the country. ICFAI Business School is confident of continuing its legacy and benefit its stakeholders. It will continue its investments in enhancing the IT and ICT infrastructure, changing its curricula with times, bringing in flexibilities if needed in delivery of its courses while adapting its processes and be ready for any challenge that the environment may put forth.
Prof. J Mahender Reddy, Vice Chancellor
Prof J Mahender Reddy is the Vice Chancellor of ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education, a deemed to be university, established u/s 3 of UGC Act, 1956 in Hyderabad and is also Chancellor of ICFAI University in Tripura and ICFAI University in Raipur.
He was an outstanding student of the Delhi School of Economics where he got his Master’s degree with distinction. He got his doctorate in Economics from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada in 1970.
He taught in the Faculty of Business Administration, at the University of Alberta in Canada, Saint Peter’s College in the United States, Administrative staff College of India, and at the Osmania University for over three decades. At Osmania University he was head of the department of Economics, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and a member of the Standing Committee of the Academic Senate. He won the Best Teacher award in the year 2002 from the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
.png){kind=logo}