Monday 2 March 2020

Industry tie-ups: How are they beneficial for B schools? By Director and CEO, GIBS Business School, Bangalore

In today’s academic scenario, it is no secret that the popularity of an MBA is soaring by the year. Gone are the days where students settled for substandard programs to improve their academic profile. Thanks to various educational portals and the influence of social media, students are now more informed in their decision-making. As a result, B-schools need to stand out amongst their competition over multiple factors. A strong industrial tie-up is one of them. Here’s how it is beneficial to a B-school.


Specialized program by a top firm

Businesses and B-schools have a mutual relationship where the latter provides a steady stream of management students to the former. While this informal relationship benefits both parties, many firms usually raise concerns about the lack of domain knowledge and requisite skill-set from the new crop of students. As a result, top firms offer to provide tuition in these areas through a specialized program. The firm’s top brass prepares a curriculum that extensively covers the particular domain while providing an extensive range of education in relevant professional skills, which will allow students to acclimatize to the company’s work culture. By creating such a holistic program, businesses will recruit students who qualify as ‘finished products’ and don’t need any further investment in training.

By collaborating with such firms and implementing their specialized programs, B-schools will stay ahead of the curve, and blur the lines between theoretical and practical know-how.


Student Networking

One of the primary reasons why students invest their time and money in an MBA degree is placements. It assures them of reaching an elevated position within an organization after two years of extensive education in a B-school. Therefore, by tying up with organizations from different domains, B-schools can provide quality industry exposure to its students. For instance, students undertake an internship at the end of their first year, wherein they have to deliver innovative solutions for their allotted projects in real-time. By working on several projects, they gain profound practical knowledge about the industry. When they integrate this practical experience with their theoretical knowledge, they gain the upper hand during placements.

Moreover, an internship helps students build contacts and build a professional network. They can positively use this relationship by applying for a role in the same organization or requesting their seniors to put in a positive word-of-mouth review about their work to a different organization. It will help them acquire their favored job role and progress in their profession excellently.


Gives credibility to B-schools

An impressive placement record allows B-schools to demonstrate the strength of their industrial tie-ups. These B-schools can confidently proclaim the fact that the best amongst the industry recruit students from their campus, and they end up having stellar professional careers in terms of job role and salary. As a result, these B-schools can position themselves as one of the best in the country. It gives their resources a lot of credibility in terms of the faculty, teaching methods & pedagogy, infrastructure, and student culture. Naturally, students will find the encouragement and interest to apply to these B-schools to lead successful professional careers in their respective domains. Hence, the admissions of B-schools link heavily to their industrial tie-ups.

By collaborating with the industry’s big firms, B-schools can provide their students with a learning experience that will give them a much-needed impetus to excel in this professional world of management.

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