Recently, Educomp Solutions Ltd. and Raffles Higher Education have announced a Dual Masters program in PGPM and M.Com and it is guaranteeing employability to the students. Educomp Raffles Higher Education is India’s leading education provider. Educomp Solution Ltd. addresses the needs of private schools, government schools, educational content, teacher training, supplemental education services, pre-schools and professional and higher education. It also provides various online learning resources. The Raffles Group operates three universities and 26 colleges across 10countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

MBAUniverse.com spoke to Harpreet Singh, Director, Educomp Raffles Higher Education Ltd. to know more about the program and his view on MBA education. Harpreet Singh is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad. Prior to joining the Educomp Raffles Group, Harpreet Singh has worked with HDFC Bank, Mumbai as the Country Head - NRI Business & Wealth Advisory Services, Centurion Bank of Punjab as the Business Director Wealth Management, Distribution and loans. 

Excerpts from the exclusive interview:

Q: At an overall level, how do you look at Indian MBA education space? What are your views?

A: According to me, there are two kinds of B Schools. The first set is, the B Schools which actually delivers management education to the student and makes them employable and industry ready in due time. The other set of B Schools is just the printing press for MBA degrees. A huge gap remains between obtaining the degree and the actual management education.

The second set of B Schools doesn’t have proper infrastructure or faculty which hampers the quality and employability of the students as well.

The shakeout in Indian MBA sector has already started. Those who concentrate on employability will survive. Rest will close down.

Q: Educomp is one of India’s leading education companies. What is the rationale behind entering the management education sector?

A: Though Educomp Solutions Ltd. was founded in 1994, we entered the higher education domain in 2008 only with Raffles Higher Education. They had a course in Design which had a major portion of the course on management skills. That is how the idea came to us to get ino management education.

Q: How is the Dual Masters program in PGPM and M.Com different from the regular 2 year MBA offered by the other B Schools? What is the uniqueness of the MBA program?

A: The Dual Masters program will enable the students to study and work in a global environment. They have a choice to go abroad for a session and come back to India. Students have an option to do a semester in RCDC Australia and Singapore. Foreign countries may not know PGPM but they will know M.Com.

The Joint Venture with Raffles Higher Education will give our students will have a competitive edge over other MBA students. They will have the benefit to obtain the mentorship from full time international faculty and internationally updated course curriculum.

As far as uniqueness of the MBA program is concerned, it is in the matter of placements. We can assure that at the end of the MBA program, the students will be employed. Out of 100 students that we will take, 25 of them will be placed in Singapore and other South Asian countries and 40 students in India. Raffles Education Corp., Singapore has confirmed jobs for 25 students from our center.

During the MBA program too the students can intern in large and small corporate. They will have the guidance and mentorship some of the best international and Indian faculty members who will be there for choosing specialization and career.

Q: Every where there has been a buzz about the faculty crunch in the management education domain. You have mentioned faculty as one of your strengths. Could you please enlighten us on the faculty of your MBA program?

A: We have a mix of Indian and international faculty. They are from the industry as well as the academia. Past faculty members of IIMs, XLRI and SRCC will also be a part of our esteemed faculty members.  We believe that the corporates can also teach a lot many things to MBAs about management education. Thus, there is a judicious mix between faculty members from industry and academia.

Q: What kind of students are you looking forward to? What are the eligibility criteria?

A: As far as eligibility is concerned, candidates should be graduates from any stream. Engineering graduates and graduates with work experience are also eligible to apply. The course is also open to post graduate students who are keen to do a management education course can also apply.

As far as selection of students is concerned, we will accept the scores of CAT, MAT and various other MBA entrance exams. But our major concern is the soft skills of the students. The students should have good communication skills, both written and verbal, especially in English. Most importantly, they should have an open attitude. They should be ready to learn and accept all that comes to his way in a positive way.

Q: Tell us about your admission cycle and the fee for the Dual masters program in PGPM and M.Com.

A: The admission procedure is going on at present. It will be over by the end of August. We are expecting that we can start our MBA program from September.

The fee for the two year full time program is Rs. Seven lakh.

Q: What are your future plans in the management education space?

A: We will build more campuses. Our students will get the best industry and knowledge exposure. In the Greater Noida campus, the students can enjoy the facility of digital library from where they can access the lectures from all over the world. The present campus might be small but the intellectual capability will be much higher. Emphasis will be provided on developing the soft skills of the students.

We are constantly researching on the pedagogy. We are trying to find out a way where we can have a uniform pedagogy for all the students with different mental ability. We will take a lot of help from the technology.

Q: What are your expectations from your upcoming MBA program?

A:  We want to be one of the top 10 B Schools. The gap remains in the employability and we want to bridge the gap. We will come up with new campuses. With a decade our numbers will be higher than the IIMs. Our future students will have large number of alumni members. We will also be coming up with three new industry driven MBA programs.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more exclusive interviews