What top three factors set IMT Ghaziabad apart from other Indian b-schools in the same segment?
Academic excellence, quality research and strong industry interface set us apart for other B-schools in the same segment. Also, our international links have enabled us to have MoUs with 23 b-schools worldwide for student exchange programs for which students don’t have to pay extra tuition fees. This has also extended to faculty exchange programs in which our faculty can visit any of these B-schools for about a semester or a year and take part in joint research activities, seminars, international conferences and joint publications. Last year around 63-65 students had taken advantage of the exchange program but now we expect to extend our association to 40 such B-schools so that at least a third of our current batch size of 360 can be an active part of it.
What are some of the latest developments at IMT Ghaziabad?
Currently we have 65 faculty members which we expect to grow to at least 80 members. They have been provided with latest laptops, laser printers and separate AC cabins. We have made the entire campus wi-fi including the hostels, faculty rooms and grounds. Our library has around 32,000 books, 12,000 online journals, 6,000 e-books and about 300 print journals. We specifically have a budget of close to a crore for the library and over a crore for IT facilities. Power is a great problem in Ghaziabad but we have a 100 pc backup. Also, we have added two more floors for our Management Development and Research Center.
Which management areas has IMT Ghaziabad gained specific expertise in?
We provide specializations in Marketing, Finance, Operations and Systems, IT, Human Resources, International Business and General Management. Also we have a number of vertical specializations like Retail, CRM and more. IMT had initially predominantly focused on Marketing but now we are focusing on all the areas because the market requirement is dynamic.
Could you mention the number of faculty members in each area of specialization?
Currently we have 65 faculty members divided in each specialization as follows –
Economic Environment and Strategy: 10
Finance: 12
HR and Business communication: 11
IT and Systems: 10
Marketing: 14
Operations: 9
We tend to increase the number proportionally in each of the specializations.
What is the percentage of students placed in each area?
For the class of 2007 our placements were as follows –
Banking and Finance: 36 pc
IT and ITES: 22 pc
Retailing: 7 pc
Manufacturing: 5 pc
Investment Banking: 13 pc
Telecom: 8 pc
Consulting: 3 pc
Others: 7 pc
What have the CAT percentile cut-offs at IMT Ghaziabad been in the last 3 years?
Our CAT percentile cut-off for the year 2005 was 95 percentile, while for 2006 it went to 96 percentile and for 2007 the average percentile of the students called for group discussions was 98. Even after we increased our intake from 200 to 360 we have maintained a minimum of 96 percentile and an average percentile of 98 for shortlists.
On what criteria do you shortlist for the group discussion stage?
Candidates can apply to IMT Ghaziabad online and offline mentioning clearly their CAT registration number through which we get their scores. A maximum weightage of 70 pc is given to CAT scores on the basis of which we give discussion and interview calls. Besides the CAT score we also give weightage to educational qualification at this stage.
Briefly, on what criteria do you evaluate candidates for final admission?
For the final calls we again factor the CAT score on a 70 pc weightage and allocate the remaining weightage to personality as measured in the group discussion stage, work experience and educational qualifications.
What are the three biggest mistakes candidate make during the group discussion and interview stage of IMT Ghaziabad?
Firstly, during a group discussion candidates simply want to prove themselves. They do not give others a chance to speak. What happens then is that everybody starts speaking simultaneously and nothing gets conveyed. What they should do is plan and motivate other fellow participants. Also whatever you say should be to the point and crisp. During the interview, students should be honest and should not give vague answers.
What exactly is the status of management or paid seats at IMT Ghaziabad?
We follow AICTE rules under which we have no management quota.
Which B-schools does IMT Ghaziabad usually lose admitted students to?
Losing students is a phenomenon that happens to every institute, even to the IIMs because that is a relative decision.
Last year’s IMT Ghaziabad placement report reported an average salary figure of Rs 10.36 lakhs, factoring both Indian and currency-converted international salaries. Do you think clubbing Indian and overseas salaries is an ethical way to report a school’s salaries, given that many aspirants make their decision to join a b-school on the basis of salaries?
We had noticeably mentioned the over all average salary clearly stating Indian salary as 9.5 lakhs and so there was no confusion.
What is IMT’s strategy behind opening the Dubai campus? Could you state advantages of studying in Dubai campus as opposed to Ghaziabad?
Ghaziabad being a parent campus we received a large number of applications from abroad especially from NRIs and we felt that we couldn’t accommodate all of them. We did a market survey and zeroed down to Dubai as an alternate campus for such students. We then purchased land and constructed our building after getting an approval for the program from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Government of UAE as a university-status approved MBA. This also allowed international exposure to our students. Currently, most of our Dubai students are Indians or NRIs but our target is to make it a ratio of 50:50 between Indians and NRIs, and Foreigners.
What are your future plans with respect to IMT-Ghaziabad? Are you planning to open more IMT campuses besides Nagpur and Dubai?
Besides increasing the number of our faculty members at Ghaziabad, we are planning to introduce super specializations focused under PGDBM (Marketing) like Retail, Customer Relationship, Market Research Analyst and more. These specializations will be introduced in a year’s time. We are planning to open two more campuses in India and one more international campus in coming five years. Currently, the locations have not been decided.