IFIM Business School, Bengaluru , one of India’s top six AACSB accredited B-schools, launched a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) programme at its new campus in Karjat, Greater Mumbai. The programme will commence from September. Beginning in the silver jubilee year, this is the first BBA programme offered by any top-ranked AACSB accredited school in the country.
IFIM Director Dr Atish Chattopadhyay said, “The MBA degree thrived in India because the undergraduate qualifications failed to produce employable graduates, barring a handful of institutes, and MBA became a gateway to the first job, especially after liberalisation of the Indian economy. It is in sharp contrast with the developed economies, where an MBA cohort predominantly consists of experienced professionals being groomed for a general management role. In India, MBA has almost become a required qualification post one’s engineering or commerce degrees for an entry into a professional career.”
Preparing graduates for the workplace
Dr Chattopadhyay said, “We intend to make the graduates ready for the industry right after the bachelor’s qualification and eliminate the need for doing an MBA. For those who could not make it to the top engineering schools like the IITs, it makes a lot of sense to pursue this programme, which saves three years of their time and acts as a gateway to a professional career.”
“I say this with a great level of confidence, having led the IFIM-NHRDN study of industry 4.0 needs, and as our curriculum has been acknowledged and appreciated by the global academic fraternity including at the recent annual AACSB meet at Edinburgh,” he added.
Catering industry demands
The curriculum caters to the needs of industry 4.0 while also integrating liberal arts (general education) aligned to the curriculum of the US universities. It is ratified by the Board of Studies chaired by Prof A Parasuraman (James W. McLamore Chair and Professor, Marketing, University of Miami Business School) and eminent academics from top business schools such as Prof Pritam Singh, former Director MDI; Prof Bhimaraya Metri, Director, IIM Trichy; Prof Rishikesha Krishnan, former Director, IIM Indore; and Pulock Bhattacharji, Vice-President, BSE India. The CXOs from companies such as Flipkart and the chiefs of associations such as the NHRDN and the UN Global Compact Network also approved the course.
The curriculum was further contextualised with the global fraternity by the IFIM Business School’s International Advisory Board (IAB) comprising Dr Simon Mercado, Dean, ESCP Europe Business School, London; Dr Mathias Falkenstein, senior global consultant, Higher Education Management, Berlin; and Dr Ulrich Hommel, Director, Business School Development, EFMD Global Network, Brussels.
Key highlights of the programme:
1. The only BBA programme in the country to have pathways to a graduate (Bachelor’s) qualifications with international partner schools. In the 2+2 pathway, students spend two years at IFIM and two at the State University of New York (SUNY). In the 3+1 pathway, three years are spent at IFIM and one year at an international school such as the University of Texas, Arlington; Virginia Commonwealth University; University of Wollongong, in Australia; and Paris School of Business.
2. The programme offers super-specialisation in next-gen areas such as big data analytics and blockchain, market technology, financial analysis and technology, digital transformation and robotic process automation, in collaboration with international partner schools such as McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, Austin; Darden School of Business, University of Virginia; Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Business; and ESCP London.