Swapnil Agrawal's Review on IFMR Graduate school of Business, KREA University (IFMR GSB), Sricity

The first year at IFMR lays foundation in core business courses that prepares the students for taking up specialized electives in the second year. The process of summer placements or summer internships, popularly known as 'summers', started sometime in September and went until February-March. The selection process is intense and is like a Mini-drill for the final placements. The students are under the guidance of our experienced faculty. As a part of the mentor-mentee system the students are allocated internship mentor to guide them through the internship projects. 

About 50% of the batch is fresher and until the summer internship project, their interaction with corporates is nil. It is only after the hands-on experience of the summer project that the real picture starts to build for them. They are better informed about their interests and the field that they would want to work in. Summer internships are an opportunity for students to experience roles and responsibilities in the area of their choice and make a more informed decision about their career in the final placements.

The internship for the batch 2014-16 saw visits of 52 companies which included some big names like Barclays, JP Morgan, HSBC, RBS, Capgemini, SBI caps, Crisil, HCL, TAFE, ICICI prudential, Murugappa Reliance Infra, RBI, Syntel, Hinduja Leyland Finance, L&T and BharatMatrimony. The roles offered were in the field of Risk Analysis, Finance, Marketing, HR, operations and Analytics. Some of the other good names were Wealth Advisors, Credit Café, Venture Intelligence, Expilco Consulting, Shipnet and IFMR Lead. The batch also witnessed roles in niche sectors of finance by Annapurna Microfinance, Sesta and MicroSave.

IFMR has state of the art facilities for students and faculty in a Wi-Fi enabled campus with high band-width broadband connectivity. All classrooms are air-conditioned and equipped with audio-visual aids and internet connectivity. Students and faculty have access to two labs with intranet and internet facility and computer-based management games.

Genuine software packages like Reuters, Financial Trading System (FTS), Barra on Campus (containing Aegis and Cosmos), Prowess, Capitaline, eViews, Statistica, Gauss Optimisation software, MATLAB simulation package and project management software are available for use by students.

The fully air-conditioned library, spread over 4000 sq ft, has a vast, well-maintained stock of books, magazines, journals, project reports and CD-ROMs. The library is a repository for all World Bank, GATT and UN publications. It provides access to info-rich databases like EBSCO, JSTOR, Science Direct, E-Library, World and Global Development indicators online and India-stat.com. It stocks around 170 national journals and 65 international journals. IFMR’s library is used by many B-schools, colleges, business organisations and researchers.

IFMR is a 16 year old institute with a mission to be among the top 3 institutes providing PGDM in Finance. Its a Not-for Profit Institute and is run by Board of Directors  who are well known in Industry circle for their excellence. The course at IFMR is not just restricted to Finance, it also provides equally rigrous and promising courses in HR, Marketing, Operations and Financial Engineering which are offered to students without any restrictions i.e. students are free to choose subjects and electives of their liking and Intrest. IFMR has wonderful set of Academicians and Corporates as teaching faculty and the course offered to the students are personally crafted by Faculy based on Feed-back and Industry requirements. Faculties are indulging and forthcoming in dealing with students. The course structure is a motely of Class room sessions, weekly quizzes, presentations, Assignments, Group projects, Seminars and guest lectures by professionals along with Mid-term and End-term examinations. Overall IFMR is an intitute with a purpose, a purpose of craving professionals out of students.

College fees is Nominal and Reasonable and is inline with other institutes of similar stature. Infact fees at IFMR (INR 12,00,000) is a notch lower than its peers. It offers Merit Based Scholarship to both First and Second year students to Top 10% of the students along with various awards such as Best out-going students, Best student Award for each Major course being offered. Coming to Bank loans, IFMR has a tie-up with Credila (A subsidiary of HDFC) to offer loans to students.

Apart from academics, student life at IFMR encompasses activities that inculcate service and team spirit in students. IFMR numerous clubs and committees. The activities range from hosting campus events, and handling external resources, placements, alumni, sports, social service and cultural events and festivals. Club activities provide students with an opportunity to explore their interests and capabilities. They also help build their soft skills for a more holistic personality development preparing them to become capable managers and leaders.

The clubs at IFMR are viz. Arthasabha (Finance club), Samarthan (Social Service club), Be-Sportive (Sports club), Laasya (Cultural club), Literary club, Markaholics (Marketing club), HR club, Entreprenuership club, Abhinay, Nritya, Photography clubs etc.

Be-sportive, The sports club ensures that students are engaged in sports activities year round and hence organizes various competitions in viz. Gully cricket, T-20 tournament, Volley ball, Badminton, Table Tennis, Basketball, Football etc.