IM-NU is situated in the very green campus of Nirma University at the S.G Highway in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The campus building greets you with an idol of Goddess Saraswati and it was interesting to see some students take her blessing before proceeding to class. The construction of all the buildings in the campus follows a circular shaped architecture and thus the buildings are full of circles and arches. It can get a little confusing though, as proceeding blocks in the institute building are exact replicas of the preceding ones. All the students swear being lost one or the other time here.
Following the tradition of all b-schools, the management at IM-NU is also run by the students with the faculty as the supervisory head. Also, the various clubs and committees take care of the students’ queries after the classroom studies are over; the finance club is known as ‘finesse’ is the most active club run by students, some of whom are well versed with the finance industry. For example, Pratish Nair, an active member of ‘finesse’ and a a student of PGP second year was a chartered accountant before joining the MBA program at IM-NU. The club members have a meeting every Monday to discuss various finance related issues and happenings. Though primarily for members, the club is open for all students interested in understanding the nuances of finance. The marketing club called ‘niche’ and other clubs too work on the same principle and students find themselves filling each other on information regarding the various happenings in the business domain. ‘Chehre’ is the theater and dramatics club of the institute where students bring out their latent talent for performing. They showcase their talents in various ways to the outside world; this year they made short videos on topics such as ‘life at Nirma’ and the best ones were screened at the institute auditorium. The social initiative of the institute is called ‘sankalp’ under which the students teach the mess workers, construction workers and their children to read and write. Apart from the conventional methods of teaching, they play various games to reinforce the learning.
The institute shares its faculty with some of the top management institutes in Ahmedabad and thus gets a good mix of permanent as well as visiting faculty. There is a great stress on discipline, for example, students cannot enter class even a second late. Also, they have to be inside the campus before 11 pm and the hostels by 11:30. However, their day is far from over at 11:30. The hostel lights are on till wee hours of the morning when the students are busy working on their assignments.
To relax or to have a quick meal, students go to the many cafeterias that the institute has to offer, their favorite being the ‘pharmacy’ canteen which is the canteen primarily for the students of Institute of Pharmacy at the Nirma University. The food counter closes at 6:00 in the evening but many students can be seen lounging around till way later. Another hangout that is worth going to at IM-NU is the ‘green benches’ near the boys’ hostel. The ‘Green benches’ are couple of benches under an umbrella of tree leaves. The placement of street lights and the trees with the benches makes for a picturesque setting. The place comes alive at night where students can be seen giving guitar lessons to each other while many others just chit chat about their daily schedules. It’s a great place to work too; between the din of fun, students can be seen deep in discussion in committee meetings. However, it becomes empty as soon as the guard blows his whistle for the hostel in-time at 11:30 pm.
The IM-NU campus emphasizes on the equality between girls and boys. Hence the in-time for hostels, rules for venturing in restricted areas and the likes are same for all the students, irrespective of their gender. After the rise in ethics, this is another good thing going in today’s MBA colleges.