IMT Ghaziabad a top class institution of higher learning and not a finishing school: Director Dr Asish K Bhattacharyya

Add Review

MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
November 2, 2018
Dr Asish K Bhattacharyya, Director, IMT Ghaziabad shares his candid views in the column about over emphasis on Placements at B-schools and the need for a long term perspective amongst MBA aspirants. An alumnus of Calcutta University, Dr Bhattacharya is a Chartered Accountant and ICWA. He has been associated with many leading institutions including IIM Calcutta and SPJIMR Mumbai.
Dr Asish K Bhattacharyya, Director, IMT Ghaziabad

AACSB Accredited IMT Ghaziabad is consistently ranked among top B schools in India. IMT Ghaziabad has recently seen change of guard and Dr Asish K Bhattacharyya has taken over as the new Director. An alumnus of Calcutta University, Dr Bhattacharya is a Chartered Accountant and ICWA. He has been associated with many leading institutions including IIM Calcutta and SPJIMR Mumbai. In this column, Dr Bhattacharya shares his candid views about over emphasis on Placements at B-schools and the need for a long term perspective amongst MBA aspirants.

IMT Ghaziabad a top class institution of higher learning and not a finishing school: Dr Asish K Bhattacharyya
A Master’s in Business Administration  (MBA) or Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDM) Programme aims to prepare students for taking up job responsibilities in the corporate sector. The span of employment in the corporate sector is 20 years to 40 years. Some executives get fatigued after 15 to 20 years of service and look for mid-career change. Others complete full term. At the end, everyone desires to be happy and to make others happy.

At the young age it is difficult to understand the sources of happiness and or the nature of  blissful life. Therefore, most MBA student considers himself/herself winner or loser based on the job profile and compensation of the first job through campus placement. This myopic view leads students to invest two prime years of their life in preparing for the first job through campus placement. Thus, they waste two most important years of their life. Many business schools consider students as customer and focus on skills that are important for the first job to fulfill students’ demand. Some others consider students as products and work towards making products job ready. This is unfortunate.

The purpose of education is to open the mind of  students to enable them to see the big picture, develop understanding of right and wrong, ability to form judgement and perceptions in unstructured situations  and to empower them to face the challenges in life. The purpose of business education is no different. However, providing business education is quite challenging, because students join the Programme at the age of 23-25 years with clear focus on placement – that is the first job. It is the responsibility of a business school to make the students understand that the first job requires skills and skills in today’s ever changing contexts become obsolete fast. On the other hand, knowledge remains for life and ‘learn to learn’ help students to acquire and accumulate knowledge as contexts change. That is what we do in IMT Ghaziabad.

The general profile of an IMTG graduate is socially sensitive, humble yet assertive, curious to learn continuously, contend yet cooperative, emotional but positive even in difficult times, and  able to work in a team as a member and also as a leader.

We, at IMTG, do not take away our focus from placement. We appreciate that placement is an important activity of the Institute. However, at IMTG we provide eco system that motivates students to achieve academic excellence. Our students learn from faculty as well as from peers, as we have a diverse community of faculty and students in terms of gender, age, geography, ethnicity, educational background and perception towards life. We encourage extra-curricular activities for students’ overall development and to enable students to pursue their hobby. For IMTG students two years of campus life is an investment to learn how to be happy in life. Placement is important, rather very important, but not an end in itself. Our students appreciate that first job is not the last job. Therefore, while acquiring skill is important, acquiring knowledge and ability to learn is more important.

At IMTG we help students to find their latent leadership qualities and help them to sharpen those. All our graduates are future leaders. They demonstrate their potential even in summer internship projects and the first job.

IMTG is a top class institution of higher learning and not a finishing school.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the column are of Dr Asish K Bhattacharyya, Director IMT Ghaziabad.