A one-day management workshop on “EMERGING PARADIGNS IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION” was organized by MBA (Engineering) on Saturday.

The objective of the workshop was to discuss & deliberate on the issues pertaining to management education in the present scenario. The workshop was attended by over 100 participants including the Director and faculty of IIM Udaipur, members and patrons of various management institutes, intellectuals, and dignitaries from the field of education and industry.

The workshop was divided in two sessions. The dignitaries for the first session included Dr. Janat Shah, Director, IIMU as Chief Guest & Key Note Speaker; Mr. P. Joseph, Assistant Vice-President (HR), Hindustan Zinc Limited, Vedanta Group as Guest of Honour; Prof. S.S. Chahal, Vice-Chancellor, MPUAT as President, Dr. N.S. Rathore, Dean, CTAE and Dr. S. Jindal, Coordinator-MBA (Engineering) & Workshop Convener. The workshop began with the tradition lighting of the lamp of knowledge & Saraswati Vandana, followed by a floral welcome to the guests.

Dr. N.S. Rathore welcomed the guests and highlighted the objectives of the workshop. He discussed the concept of 10-90 and four P’s – Plan, Prepare, Proceed and Pursue. He also appreciated the vision & guidance of Professor Chahal in the development and progress of the University.

Dr. Janat Shah in his keynote address discussed the gaps in management education and their innovative solutions.

He began with the present status of management education in India. He explained the four-tier system of B-Schools in India and the problems being encountered by tier 3 & 4 institutions providing management education to over 80% of management students in India.

He also suggested the tier 3 institutions to work harder to rise to tier 2 levels. He also informed the august house that the downturn in management education was not solely restricted to India but is a global phenomenon, this he elaborated further with figures from US universities.

He presented the research findings of Professor Datar, Garvin & Cullen from their book “Rethinking the MBA”. The findings highlighted the 8 gaps in management education and the real-world and the competencies needed by the MBA’s. He suggested the need of rebalancing between “knowing”, “doing” & “being”.

Dr. Janat Shah discussed the innovative practices being followed at IIMU for the development and betterment of management education. He emphasized on student diversity, global & rural immersion, distributed leadership and focus on soft skills. He informed about the various innovative practices followed by the top B-schools of the country, which are being implemented successfully.

Dr. P. Joseph in his special address stressed on the increasing training cost of management graduates & the need for better grooming of the students for the real world during the academic course. He expressed that the number of students had increased considerably but the quality had deteriorated.

He emphasized the importance of ethics in students and the need to further inculcate them through the pedagogy model. He informed the house that Hindustan Zinc is one of the largest recruiters with a metro culture in their office. He laid major emphasis on body language, communication skills and attitude in shaping the managers.

Professor S. S. Chahal, in his Presidential address, reaffirmed the need of distributed leadership, commitment, diversity, aptitude and teamwork to be a successful manager. He emphasized the need for innovation, creativity, clear vision and a good delivery system for the opening of B-schools. He also highlighted the gaps in the field of management education relating to lack of quality faculty, placements and the failure of distant mode of education.

On the occasion, the summer internship brochure of the first batch of MBA (Engineering) students was also released. At the end of the session, Dr. S. Jindal made a brief presentation on the programs & activities of MBA (Engineering) course and gave a “Vote of Thanks” to all the dignitaries & guests.

The keynote speaker for the second session was Prof. Satish Sharma, Chairman, Maharaja Group of Colleges and the Special Guests included Dr. Manoj Swaroop, Vice President (Commercial), Wolkem India Limited; Prof. B.P. Bhatnagar, Advent Institute of Management and Mr. K.S. Mogra, Advisor, UCCI. The session began with a floral welcome to the guests.

Professor Satish Sharma, in his keynote address, indicated the difference in the resources available to the central educational institutes and other institutes. He stated that it is the tier 3 & 4 management education institutes which are catering to the major demand of management graduates in the country. He emphasized on the need of government support and the relaxing of regulations for accreditation & registration for these institutes.

Mr. Manoj Swaroop, stressed on the need of practical education, live projects and industrial training by the management institutes and also called upon the institutes to regularly update their curriculum with the latest developments in the business world.

Professor B.P. Bhatnagar called upon the directors of the management institutes for an increased role in research & development activities and the industry to share the required information and data with the faculties for research purposes.

Mr. K.S. Mogra emphasized on the need of informal education in the management by having the faculties learn the practical concepts of business and industry prior to the students. He called for collaborative working of industry & academia for betterment of management education and increased enrolment in the courses.

He asked the management institutes to send the students regularly to the industries and assured full support of UCCI in this context.

A round of open discussions was also held in this session where all the participants expressed their views and suggestions on the issues. In the end, Dr. S. Jindal presented the conclusions, recommendations and suggestions of the workshop and Mr. Hitesh Chelawat presented the “Vote of Thanks”.

via Press Release