SDMIMD is proud to be Indias 1st EPAS accredited B school; Students to benefit immensely: Dr NR Parasuraman, Director

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
February 21, 2017
Recognizing the quality of management education and Internationalization at SDMIMD, Mysore, global accreditation body EFMD has awarded the prestigious EPAS International Accreditation to the 2 year PGDM Program offered by the institute.
It is a moment of great joy for SDMIMD. Students will benefit immensely by getting international exposure and high quality program, Dr NR Parasuraman, Director

Recognizing the quality of management education and Internationalization at Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Institute for Management Development (SDMIMD), Mysore, global accreditation body EFMD has awarded the prestigious EPAS International Accreditation to the 2 year PGDM Program offered by the institute. The same was announced by SDIMD on February 16. Earlier, in November 2016, SDMIMD also received the ACBSP Accreditation. 

Based in Brussels, EFMD is an international organization of business schools and corporations with nearly 900 members from academia and business in 86 countries. EPAS Accreditation has been awarded to 102 programs in 75 B-schools and Universities including Curtin Graduate School of Business, Australia; HEC Management School, Belgium; Peking University HSBC Business School, China; Nottingham Business School, UK and Boston University Metropolitan College, USA. 

Talking to MBAUniverse.com on this achievement, Dr N R Parasuraman, Director, SDMIMD Mysore shares the importance of being the first EPAS accredited B-school in India, the benefit of it for students and other stakeholders. Edited excerpts of the interview follow:  

How do you see the recognition of being the first EFMD EPAS Accredited B-school in India?
It is a moment of great joy for SDMIMD. The Institute has always followed high quality parameters in academics and quality of student experience. Once the accreditation process started, we were able to specifically address certain areas for improvement and worked hard to bring these into desirable levels of quality. It is indeed great for our program to be the first to be accredited by the rigorous standards set by EFMD.

More than anything else, it is a confidence booster and reassures us that our procedures and practices are as these should be.

What was the process of getting EPAS accreditation? How much time did it take for getting this accreditation?
We were able to complete the EPAS process in less than two years. After making the application for EPAS we were required to submit several rounds of Self Assessment Reports (SAR). These were then accepted by their Board giving us the status of a 'Candidate for Accreditation'. In doing so, they indicated the specific areas where we needed to demonstrate progress.

 Looking back, we are proud at the dedication and team work with which we did this.

What are the changes and improvements you had to make for getting this accreditation…
The EPAS standards required us to address many aspects of academics, evaluation, program delivery, overall strategy and general quality. Specifically, we worked hard on internationalization, having more corporate interactions, improving the learning outcomes and rubrics, and overall research output. 

Last year you had also earned ACBSP accreditation. How has SDMIMD benefited from the accreditations?
The benefit has been enormous. We, as a team, addressed each of the standards of these two great accreditation bodies and worked on these keeping the letter and spirit in mind. Again, SDMIMD always had good systems and procedures in place, but we still needed to work on all standards in unison, and to document our performance effectively.  It was a great learning experience for all of us and in the process; we now have a fully rounded system and work quality in SDMIMD. 

How will this accreditation benefit students of your PGDM program?
There are a number of ways by which students will benefit. Firstly, the quality of the SDMIMD PGDM Program in the eyes of the outside world has become higher thanks to the accreditations. Secondly, students will have greater opportunities to participate in international exchange program. The Institute will be able to attract overseas students as part of exchange and this will give rise to opportunities for joint work and interaction. Several international faculty will also be part of the lecturing team in SDMIMD and this will expose the students to greater spectrum of learning.

We can also expect that the corporate bodies will see the benefits of students going through a well-tested, internationally recognized process, and hence placement possibilities will be higher.

After earning, EPAS and ACBSP accreditations, what are the new initiatives in coming months at SDMIMD
We plan to have greater thrust on tie-ups and hope to rope in a few more exchange programs in the ensuing months. Further, based on the learnings from the process, we would be strengthening our corporate programs and offerings. It is also hoped that the research output which is already high will rise to greater heights of quality based on greater interaction with faculty from partner overseas institutes. There are several other plans which are in the process of formulation. 

Finally, what’s your message to applicants and prospective students who are evaluating various options… 
Without wishing to sound like campaigning for SDMIMD, I wish to tell aspirants that they should choose schools that have gone through a rigor of procedures and practices where the academics are strong. An accreditation process is a great validation of this.

For more details on SDMIMD, visit this link.