Specialisation in entrepreneurship, industry-focused research projects to hone students’ research acumen, community engagement projects, general interest courses — in theatre, fine art, design thinking, film appreciation — to a finishing school to make one ‘industry-ready’, the Coimbatore-based KCT Business School has introduced all these in its new curriculum to inject new vigour into its MBA programme.
Says Dr Vijila Kennedy, Director, KCT Business School, “We took it as a challenge in 2015: how to redefine our MBA programme to meet industry needs. We identified programme objectives with all stakeholders, the industry and also the alumni. With that objective, we worked backwards on what should be the curriculum and the pedagogy. We benchmarked business schools at the regional and national level and came up with a dream MBA. A lot of different ideas were thrown up. Then, of course, we narrowed it down and brought it in a structure and worked out the content and courses.”
The new courses KCT started from the first semester were community engagement projects. Also to trigger students’ interest and expose them to different things beyond the pale of management, several general interest courses were introduced, ranging from theatre, design thinking, arts, film appreciation and so on.
In the second semester, research project are introduced where students work closely with industry to come up with actionable reports industry can use. “We wanted to heighten the research acumen of students,” says Dr Kennedy.
In third and fourth semester, KCT has introduced a specialisaton in entrepreneurship, “Coimbatore is a big entrepreneurial region so we have a variety of programmes, from social entrepreneurship to family businesses. Students can branch out based on their interest,” she says. Coimbatore is bristling with thriving family-owned businesses so the course seemed appropriate. In the final semester, a course akin to a finishing school is planned so that they are job- and industry-ready.
Dr Kennedy said the MBA at KCT places a lot of emphasis on communication as feedback from industry was that students need to be able to communicate well. In every course, as part of the learning, students have to make presentations. “So, students go through almost 25 viva voces before they sit for an interview with a panel for a job. Their fluency and confidence increased. We are very clear what we have done has worked and we are happy about that,” explains Dr Kennedy.