College Review: IFIM Business School, Bangalore

IFIM Business School: College Review

An 18-year-old institution, IFIM Business School, Bangalore is known to have good faculty and uses effective teaching methodologies. Insiders reveal that the first thing one would notice on stepping foot inside this B-school is the impressive architectural design of the college along with a small statue of Lord Buddha near the gate.

The campus is known to provide a secure and enhancing atmosphere to its students. Some of the initiatives started by this management college are student social responsibility programme called Shiksha Aadhar and SAFE, personality enhancement programme (PEP), 4.5 month industry internship programme (IIP), lab for business analytics (in partnership with IBM), finance lab (supported by BSE/NSE) and a sustainability centre (in partnership with Infosys).

Programmes on offer at IFIM include PGDM general (dual specialization), PGDM finance and PGDM international business.

Recreational and fun sports are a part of the college curriculum and students are motivated to exercise daily and are provided with separate gym and recreational activity trainers in the hostel.

Infrastructure

IFIM’s campus is not centrally air-conditioned but the seating is comfortable. The business school’s campus is spread over two acres of land and its infrastructure consists of a computer lab, an integrated wi-fi enabled campus, student activity areas such as a lounge and snack bar, 24 classrooms of varying seating capacities, three conference halls exclusively for executive development programmes. The campus also has a centrally air-conditioned auditorium, an amphitheatre, placement office, admissions office and an administration department.

Faculty

A vast majority of the faculty members are friendly. Students prefer attending classes from their permanent faculty; however, guest lectures are regularly conducted by people from the corporate world.

Dr. D N Murthy from the marketing department is the best professor as per students and the most popular faculty members are Dr. Anand Narasimha from brand management and Dr. Md. Sharieff who teaches international business.

Teaching Techniques

Approximately 70% of the classes are discussion/interaction based while the remaining 30% lectures use presentations as a medium to explain different concepts better.

A healthy mix of different teaching techniques such as case studies, group and individual presentations, company analysis assignments as well as quiz are used by faculty members to teach different topics/subjects.

Students mostly take down their own notes (pen-pencil based) during classes. Professors provide notes to students for different topics which they can download from the learning management system. However, sometimes this system faces glitches.

At IFIM, students are evaluated on the basis of pre-declared tests and surprise test (which are not a common phenomenon) marks are never add up in CGPA except project viva-voce. However, students are not laden with excessive study pressure.

Placements

On an average at least 60 companies visit the campus for placements. In 2014, around 93% students opted for campus placement. The highest salary offered by an Indian company was 10 lakh per annum whereas a whooping 14 lakh per annum package was offered by an international company. The average salary offered to students was Rs. 5 lakh per annum and the least package offered was Rs. 3.5 lakh per annum.

Also, approximately 80% students were offered a package of above Rs. 4 lakhs per annum.
Recruiters who visit the campus for placement include Biocon, Dalal Street, Britania, Panchantra, Federal Bank, IDBI Bank, Juniper Networks, American Express, Blue Ocean, Get Ahead, ACT, Amba research, Beroe, Cargill, Citi, DBS, Deliotte, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ICICI Bank, Madison PR, Beetel extra etc.

Attendance

Students need to posses at least 75% attendance which is a must-have to sit for the exams. The rest 25% attendance can be compensated with “on duty” activities.

The faculty is very strict when it comes to reaching the class on time and late coming is not allowed unless and until students have a genuine reason.

College Crowd & Hangout Places

The college crowd at IFIM B-school has a good mix of students from all over the country. Ragging is strictly banned in the college. Freshers are welcomed through an induction and orientation session.
Most of the students are seen hanging out at either the college cafeteria or a special corner called ‘cultural hub’ which has been painted by IFIM’s students. Students from the finance stream are seen spending most of their time at the finance lab.

Canteen

The college canteen is extremely clean and students are given a lot of variety to choose from as the menu changes every month. The cost for food is deducted from student’s hostel fee.

The best food item served at the cafeteria are muttar paneer as well as apple custard and one dish you should refrain from eating is the aloo sabzi served on Thursdays.

College Fest

IFIM’s official college fest is called “Naman”. It is a two day national management and cultural festival. Many celebrities take part in this fest wherein a variety of competitions are held. Right after the cultural fest a fund raiser event called the walkathon is organised by the student social responsibility team for saving the girl child.

Verdict

IFIM is a good b-school offering good exposure to students. However, the institute needs to work on aspects as increasing alumni interaction, better display process of CGPA as well error free functioning of the learning management system.

Watch this video made by IFIM students to know what a day in the life of an IFIMite is like.