IMC Award 2014 Winners Case-study: How TAPMI increased its applications in a slowdown

TAPMI Manipal won the IMC Silver Award 2014 for its initiative titled Experience TAPMI. The initiative highlighted how TAPMI has managed to grow applications to its PGDM program for Admissions 2014, when most other B-schools were struggling to meet even their last years numbers.

MBAUniverse.com presents the highlights from Experience TAPMI Initiative. This detailed Case-study, along with all IMC Award Winners & Finalists, will be published as a book by global publishing company McGraw Hill in September.

Excerpts from TAPMI Case-study:

Experience TAPMI
By Prof. Chowdari Prasad,
Dean, Public Relations & Chairman-Admissions, T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal
Management Education in India is passing through consolidation stage. TAPMI being a three decade old B-School located in a remote area has been experiencing ups and downs in the intake of quality students in all its programs. Being a Globally Accredited and highly graded/ ranked B-School in the country, TAPMI has been adopting innovative methods in its input- process- output stages while withstanding the increasing competition from public and private B-Schools. TAPMI was the first non-IIM to use the CAT scores and scientific GDPI process in its Admissions. Over a period, other popular entrance tests like XAT, GMAT and MAT were also added to the process. Its Admissions policy is designed by a high level committee consisting of Director and Deans. Looking at the current market scenario and the profile of the aspirants for MBA, TAPMI entered into MoUs with various partners for executing its Admission process. Digital and Social Marketing are the current buzz words rightly adopted by TAPMI to reach out to candidates PAN India and attract best of the application pool. In the process, the outcomes have been phenomenal in attracting students for the existing 2 programs and introducing a third- PGDM- Banking and Financial Services.

Introduction to the Initiative:

Keeping in view the national scenario, TAPMI formulates its Admissions, Curriculum and Pedagogy and Placements criteria. Sometimes, instead of Out of the box thinking, a simple logical approach helps in cost effective solutions. A step by step approach was followed by TAPMI for this years admissions for conducting GD-PIs at 9 centers during March- April 2014 for its 3 programs, viz: PGDM, PGDM-HC (Healthcare) and PGDM-BKFS (Banking & Financial Services).

How was this initiative executed?

TAPMI conducted a survey during the admissions GDPIs in March/April 2013. A summary of these findings was useful in formulating the policy for the current year. The next step was to seek inputs from the existing students. The current batch of students, shared their experiences in selection process of other leading B-Schools. These inputs were a rich source of information on what is expected of the student community. An informative email was sent internally to existing students to elicit their suggestions.

Simultaneously, TAPMI website under Admission page was updated with all the relevant information like Application Procedure, Eligibility, Fee Details, Information on availability of Handbook, AICTE Approvals, Campus facilities, information on Manipal/Udupi, Contact Information, Educational loans and FAQs as also Refund Policy (AICTE).

This was followed by an advertisement in newspapers and business magazines, informing the aspirants as to what TAPMI is looking for Admissions (eligibility, exams accepted, start date of applications, Payment modes, last date of applications along with contact details and website). This was also publicized using the digital/ social media to reach maximum aspirants and create a viral effect. TAPMI has, this year, reduced the expenditure on Print Media and moved towards Internet Media like Facebook, Pagalguy, etc., as also usage of YouTube extensively. TAPMI is listed in more than 30 popular MBA related websites like MBAUniverse.com, Careers360, Shiksha.com, premba.in, etc.

In order to facilitate the applicant and for a wider reach, TAPMI used both online and physical forms for its sale of Admissions applications pan India, done through Axis Bank and 2 coaching centers- TIME & IMS learning, besides Over The Counter sales at its Manipal and Bangalore offices. The online campaign partners were MBAUniverse.com, Careers360.com, Shiksha.com etc.

Besides, various online activities were initiated for the tech savvy students. They were
Direct E-Mails
Auto Reply emails
Reminder Emails
Visual Banners
Thread in Pagalguy page
Facebook Contest

E-Mailers from different partners at regular intervals
Web Activity Trackers
Sponsored Handle with logo
Admission Notification
Online chat
Social Media Integration of Content
Articles on the events at TAPMI
Ads in Emailers
Counseling Thread

However, the submission of application was a fully online process. TAPMI moved from receiving physical applications to complete online process to cope with present technology where even laptops are being replaced with touch based palm sized devices. This move was user-friendly to both the Admission Team as well as the tech-savvy students, besides being environment friendly. An aspirant could log in from anywhere to key in his information for filling up the data which involved 5 simple steps. He could log back to fill in the application from where he had left. On completion, an auto generated PDF document of the application is sent to the candidates to his registered e-mail id. These services were rendered by M/s. Thotmatrix enabling us to monitor the receipt of applications on real time basis with break up data for each of the 9 centers as also for each of the 3 programs.

Besides, an Auto reply facility was also created for students writing to Admissions Office seeking Clarifications. A set of 31 FAQs were also updated in the website for quick reference of the candidates. These drastically reduced the number of calls received in Admission Office as most questions were answered. This year TAPMI had partnered with 6 online portals as against 3 the previous year, besides using social media like Facebook, Pagalguy, blogs etc.
T
APMI website was very dynamic and was updated with all the necessary information for candidates. The Admission Page had information on
Overview of Admissions
Procedure for Applying
Eligibility
Fee Details
Handbook- Online Application
Campus Facilities
Scholar Loan Scheme

Information to Admitted Students
-Affidavits
- Medical Certificates
- Checklist
Online Assessment- FLIP
AICTE Refund Policy
FAQs

Information on Manipal/ Udupi
TAPMI website is very transparent and is exhaustive with Information. The Website as a whole has all the information on all the activities of the Institute that will answer any queries of the students and any visitor.
4 Years B-School Ranking Reports
6 years Placement Data (audited by IPRS)
17 TAPMI Silver Jubilee Leadership Lectures
28 Annual Convocation Speakers
31 TAPMI Founders day lecture speakers
Alumni Data from 1984 to 2014
Alumni in Top Leadership Positions
Student Activities Brandscan, Atharva, Disha etc
Institute/ Faculty Achievements- Awards
Corporate Speakers who addressed students

E-Mailers were sent to all the applicants/ aspirants from time to time by all our online campaign partners. Printed posters were sent to all leading engineering/ degree colleges for display on their notice boards.
Having regard to the past experience the Admission committee reviewed the formats for conducting of GDPI, weightages for each of the components like Academic performance (10th, 12th & degree level), Percentile scores of the entrance exams (CAT, XAT, GMAT & MAT), performance at the GD level, Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI).

Due weightage was also given to both educational qualification and employment experience. Topics of Contemporary interest like socio-political- economic were given for GroupDiscussion/ Written Ability Test. In order to attract the best of the talents, Top performers at each of the centers were offered admissions and asked to pay a token amount of fee within a weeks time. Thereafter merit candidates were offered admissions. All communications were sent through electronic mails. All the payments were received online. Both the categories of selected candidates were given two more weeks time to pay the first installment fee.

Results Achieved:
In view of all the above efforts and means of communication, the following results were achieved:
Increased the number of applications registered from the previous year (6800 to 7667)
Drastic reduction in the calls and emails from the previous year
More Streamlined Admission Process
Working professionals provided with enough time to attend GDPI as also in deciding to join the program
Students from 25 states represent the batch
Admitting students with high percentiles (CAT-97.58, XAT- 99.38 and GMAT- 720)
30 % of Freshers admitted
Good Mix of Students in terms of number of States, Technical/ Non-Technical background
- ( 83 % Engineers & 17 % from other streams)
A healthy gender mix of Male-Female
- (67 % male & 33 % female)
Overall, it was a fulfilling and challenging task for the Team Admissions at TAPMI in
Strengthening the flagship PGDM program
Maintaining PGDM Healthcare Management
Introducing a Sectoral program in Banking & Financial Services

About IMC Awards 2014

The annual IMC Awards, an integral part of IMC Conference, recognizes the Innovations & Best-practices in Curriculum, Pedagogy, Industry-engagement & Marketing in Indian Management Education. More than 50 B-schools including IIMs, XLRI, IIFT, SIBM and Great Lakes, participated in the 2014 nomination process. The IMC Award were judged by three highly respected MBA educators -- Dr Bakul Dholakia, Former Director, IIM Ahmedabad; Dr Rajan Saxena, Vice Chancellor, NMIMS University and Dr Rishikesha Krishnan, Director, IIM Indore.

Global publisher McGraw Hill is publishing IMC 2014 Conference Proceedings, a hard-copy 200 page book that will document and highlight learnings from each of the IMC Award Winners. With the help of this publication, hundreds of B-schools will be also be learn and adopt these Best-practices.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on Management Education trends.