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The impact of COVID 19 on MBA Education in India: Updates from leading institutions

Vasudha

Due to the coronavirus induced lockdown across the country, all educational activities have come to a grinding halt. As a result, all leading educational institutions across the country have been closed since mid-March 2020, leaving the students staring an uncertainty. As the lockdown kept getting extended, the closure also kept getting extended.

Most of the leading business schools in the world, including Harvard Business School and Chicago BOOTH, had entirely moved their classes online. Educational institutions in India, as well as most of the other countries, have decided to postpone International Exchange Program, Convocations, classes, and program commencements.

Moreover, GMAT, as well as executive assessment, have been suspended by the GMAC all over the world in order to contain the spread of the COVID 19 infection as week as mitigate its adverse impact.

Recently, the AICTE has instructed all institutes under its purview to not go for any summer internships this year, due to the lockdown. AICTE has also revised the academic calendar for the current academic year, i.e. 2020-21 wherein admission process, class commencement, and fee-related matters have been addressed.

MBA Admission 2020: New Guidelines for AICTE

All educational institutions operating under the purview of AICTE have been issued instructions to follow the below-mentioned guidelines for the current academic session: –

S. No. Event Date
1 Admission closes for 2020-21 (PGDM and PGCM) 31st July 2020
2 The final date for cancellation of admission (refund of full fee fewer Rs. 1000) 25th July 2020
3 Academic session 2020-21 starts for new students 31st July 2020 to 1st August 2020
4 Academic Session 2020-21 starts for existing students 1st July 2020
5 Final dates for admission in open learning and distance learning (for the next two sessions) 15th August 2020 and 15th February 2021

 MBA Admission 2020: New Summer Internships says AICTE

This year the MBA students will not be able to avail the opportunity of working on real-time projects during their internships as the AICTE has said no to summer internships in other organisations due to the ongoing nationwide lockdown prompted by the Coronavirus pandemic.

AICTE has instructed the institutions to not allow the students to take up summer internships in other organisations. Instead, AICTE has issued instructions to the institutions wherein they have been asked to provide the students with internships in which they can work from home.

AICTE also issued a tweet regarding this announcement which read, “AICTE directs all its Approved Institutes to instruct students NOT to take up any Summer Internships outside organisations. Instead, colleges/institutes should give challenging problems as an internship which can be done From home.”

Though, internships which had already started before the nationwide lockdown came into effect and wherein students have been allowed to work from home can continue as normal. AICTE has stated that new guidelines will be issued pertaining to the mandatory internship policy once the situation returns to normalcy.

MBA students feel that they have lost out on a great experience because internships are extremely important for their future career. The opportunity to work in reputed organisations and chance for proving their mettle is extremely pivotal. As such, they have requested AICTE to not cancel the internships but instead postpone them till the situation improves.

MBA Admission 2020: Students of FORE opt for virtual summer internships

Taking up the situation created by Coronavirus as a challenge, students of FORE School of Management, New Delhi, have come up with an ingenious solution. All summer internships at FORE have been moved to the virtual space. Herein, all the students can complete their internships while staying indoors with the help of the latest technological tools and online faculty reviews.

Classes for the Executive PGDM Course at FOE are being conducted effectively in the virtual mode. Additionally, Fore is also hosting various webinars related to key management fields like Big Data Analytics, Marketing, Finance, and several others.

As the situation created by pandemic has forced people to look for new solutions and adaptation strategy, many assignments during the summer internship cover the aspects regarding how to cope with the crisis and see a silver lining. The projects across key functional areas like Marketing, Economics and Policy, IT, Strategy, Finance, HR, and Operations cover interesting topics.

MBA Admission 2020:  Convocations and Events Postponed

 Let’s have a look at the latest updates regarding the convocation ceremony and other key events from leading business schools of India: –

The annual convocation for the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad was originally scheduled for 21st March 2020. But now, it has been postponed indefinitely. In its notification, IIM-A stated that due to the guidelines issued by the WHO as well as the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the annual convocation has been postponed. The institute also clarified that the programme offices would get in touch with the students from the graduating batch regarding their degrees.

The institute issued the statement that this decision has been taken after due deliberation and consultation with key stakeholders considering the safety of the students and their families.

The 64th annual convocation for the Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur was originally scheduled for 21st March 2020, wherein 520 students had to receive their diplomas. But now, it has been postponed indefinitely. Issuing a statement, the Director of the institute said that the convocation ceremony for XLRI is being postponed indefinitely due to the Coronavirus outbreak in India and other countries.

The annual convocation for the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode was originally scheduled for 3rd April 2020 and 4th April 2020. But now, it has been postponed indefinitely. This decision has been taken due to the increasing cases of Coronavirus in Kerala. 663 students were slated to receive their degrees during the ceremony. Issuing a statement, the Director of the institute informed everyone that the convocation ceremony had been postponed indefinitely.

The annual convocation for the Indian Institute of Management, Indore was originally scheduled for 24th March 2020 and 25th March 2020. But now, it has been postponed indefinitely. The Director of the institute said that they are closely monitoring the situation and the new dates for the 21st convocation ceremony will be decided later on, depending on the situation in the country.

The annual convocation for the Indian Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli was originally scheduled for 21st March 2020. But now, it has been postponed indefinitely. The new dates will be announced only after the situation normalises and it is safe to travel.

The annual convocation for the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon has been postponed indefinitely. The institute issued a statement that the convocation has been postponed till further order and will be conducted when the situation returns to normalcy.

The annual convocation ceremony for IMT Ghaziabad has been postponed indefinitely by the management, in the wake of the advisory issued by the state government.

The 32nd Annual Convocation ceremony for BIMTECH Greater Noida has been postponed indefinitely. The ceremony was originally scheduled for 11th April 2020. But it has now been deferred indefinitely in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and till the situation normalises.

The annual convocation ceremony for TAPMI Manipal has been postponed indefinitely till normalcy is restored in the country. The Director of the institute said that as per the government guidelines, all events that could lead to large gatherings had been cancelled including the classes as well as farewell events. Regarding the internships, the institute is in touch with the recruiters for rescheduling the dates. Further decisions will be taken only after the assessment of the situation.

The annual convocation ceremony for SDMIMD Mysore has been postponed indefinitely. Originally the event was to take place on 19th March 2020. The Director of the institute said the decision to postpone the convocation was taken as per the guidelines of the state and the central government. All the processes have been completed though.

Classroom sessions suspended in many institutions

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing lockdown, most institutions have suspended their classes and started online classes. This system will continue until the situation returns to normal.

All classroom sessions have been cancelled by IIM Kozhikode. The Director of the institute elaborated on the measures taken in the wake of the COVI 19 pandemic. He stated that in order to ensure the safety and well-being of all individuals, all academic programs and events where large gatherings could have occurred had been cancelled. Students have also been instructed to vacate their hostels at earliest for safety and security purpose.

IIM Indore has cancelled all classes and exams from 17th March 2020 itself. Classes will be conducted in online mode until the situation normalises. Students have been asked to the vacate the hostels and return to their homes. The Director of the institute said that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures and everyone is together in the fight against Coronavirus. The uncertainty and anxiety is only a temporary phenomenon.

All classroom sessions and academic activities have been cancelled by IIM Trichy till the Coronavirus pandemic comes under control. The Director of the institute communicated that all classes, training programs, and events have been postponed. Communication is ongoing with students wherein they are being informed regarding measures to prevent the infection as well as create awareness. Moreover, hand sanitisers have been placed in different areas to ensure better hygiene.

For the next few weeks, all classroom sessions have been cancelled by the institute and teaching has now moved to virtual interactive learning sessions for the next few weeks or until the situation normalises.

As per the guidelines issued by the government, MDA Gurgaon has deferred all learning programs, suspended classroom sessions and exchange programs. The Director of the institute enlisted key measures taken at MDI Gurgaon: –

All classroom sessions have been cancelled, and students have been advised to attend the online sessions across all the campuses.

BIMTECH Greater Noida has moved all the teaching sessions to Facebook Live. The institute informed that the teachers are ready to continue teaching with the help of online tools. Incomplete topics and pending sessions are being completed through Facebook Live. The strategic management committee and the faculty council at BIMTECH had taken a decision to move the traditional learning methods to blended learning.

IFIM Business School Bangalore has suspended all classroom activities and is now conducting academic activities through the Learning Management System. The Director of the institute stated that the institute is using its Keep learning platform and Learning Management System for conducting the classes. Various measures have been taken by the institute to facilitate the learning for students, such as: –

Revelling in its successful placement session that saw high salary offers and PPOs, TAPMI Manipal has cancelled all classroom sessions and other gatherings until normalcy returns. The decision regarding resumption of classes at the campus will be taken only after the situation normalises.

Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, has announced its unique and path-breaking “Term Zero”, a high-impact initiative to support the incoming students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative will help the students gain insights and perspectives from some of the world’s leading Management Gurus and CXOs apart from masterclasses and workshops which would give them a head’s start in their journey to building leadership and business skills.

A major highlight of the Term Zero is the Global Thought Leaders Series which will run from 18th-30th May 2020 and will feature online interactive sessions with reputed management education stalwarts such as Dr. Ashwath Damodaran (NYU Stern), Dr. Dipak Jain (President, CEIBS, Former Dean, Kellogg and INSEAD), Dr. Hayagreeva Rao (Stanford), Dr. John Bilson (Dean, IIT Stuart), Dr. Madhav Rajan (Dean, Chicago Booth), Dr V.G. Narayanan (Harvard), Dr. Sam Pitroda (Telecom Pioneer), Dr. Seenu Srinivasan (Stanford), Dr. Shyam Sunder (Yale), Dr. Srikant Datar (Harvard) and Dr. Sunil Chopra (Kellogg).

The CXO Talks includes sessions by Mr. Suresh Narayanan (Chairman and MD, Nestle India), Mr. R. Seshasayee, (Former Chairman, Infosys and Former MD, Ashok Leyland), Mr. Mohan Nair (Sr. VP & CIO, Cambia), Mr. Ganesan Ramachandran (MD, Accenture Strategy) and Mr. Ananth Krishnan (CTO, TCS).

While the academic year start has been deferred to Aug 2020 as per AICTE guidelines, Term Zero will support and prepare the aspiring management graduates for a transformational journey prior to the commencement of the academic year. Term Zero is an optional value-added program available at zero cost to the incoming students and serves to supplement the curricula of the management programs offered by Great Lakes, Chennai.

Dr. Suresh Ramanathan, Dean – Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai mentioned that while the current situation has been challenging for many educational institutions, “Great Lakes Chennai has leveraged its unrivaled access to a global network of thought leaders and its experience in the online space to ensure that students fully utilize the time available by gaining valuable global perspectives and management skills.”

Dr. Bala V. Balachandran, Founder & Chairman – Great Lakes Institute of Management and J.L. Kellogg Distinguished Professor, mentioned that “In line with our motto of Global Minds – Indian Roots, Great Lakes always attracted global faculty to share their perspectives and this year students are getting to interact with many global thought leaders and top CEOs even before the start of the program. This is how innovative organizations work by converting a challenge in to an opportunity.”

Global Thought Leader Series (Sessions)

CXO Talks

Other Term Zero sessions include Masterclasses in Marketing, Finance and Accounting, Operations, and Analytics, Workshops in R and Python, Case Analysis Workshops and live discussions, Resume-writing workshops, interactive sessions with alumni and digital student icebreakers. Term Zero will begin on 18th May and will continue till end of July.

As most of the classroom sessions at the institute were near completion when the lockdown was implemented, the institute has decided to deliver the remaining sessions through online channels. Different online tools like Zoom, Impartus, and Cisco WebEx will be used for the classes by the teachers. Faculty members, mentors, and the students have been given the option to communicate over the telephone, WhatsApp, and other modes of communications to continue the academic activities.

The second-year program and the end-term exams were completed by SDMIMD Mysore by the last week of February 2020 itself. The evaluation process was over by 10th March 2020. The classes for the first-year students were also completed by 18th March 2020, and online exams were conducted for the end-term exams. But now as the AICTE has issued guidelines that the students will not be going physically for the internships instead will be working from home. In order to keep the learning process going, SDMIMD is also planning to supplement it with specified project work. The institute informed that it has tied-up with TCS Ion to launch the online content and 100 hours of videos are already available on the platform. For the next session, the faculty is preparing blended content as well as online content.

In order to ensure that the students’ academics do not get affected, JK Business School has transferred its entire classroom learning program to the online platform for its BBA, PGDM, and BCom courses. Google G Suite is the online platform that will be sued to allow the students to work and study from home. Recently Google announced that as CSR initiative, it would offer free access to advanced features of Hangouts Meet, G Suite, and G Suite for education to customers across the world. JK Business School’s partnership with Google allows conducting online classes and completion of official work. It offers the facility to host meetings with up to 250 individuals, live streaming to almost 100,000 individuals from a single domain, and the functionality to record and save classroom sessions and meetings on Google Drive. The Director of the institute informed that ever since Holi break, students, staff, and faculty members were asked to leave the campus to observe social distancing. But they are completely connected with the help of online learning and teaching tools.

Impact of Coronavirus on MBA Admissions

The final section process for the new academic session was in full swing across most business schools when the nationwide lockdown was announced due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Now, the business schools will be completing the interview process and other selection processes only. As the new academic session in India usually starts in July, so the institutes are hoping that by then the pandemic will be under control and normal classroom activities can resume.

Personal interview round for admission to PGP program for 2020-22 session has been postponed by the institute. The interviews for the admission were scheduled to start from 23rd March 2020 but have now been postponed.

By conducting the interviews for the courses through Skype, IIM Trichy will be completing the PI process for the 2020-22 batch. The Director of the institute stated that the interview process for PGP admissions had been completed some time back, and the interview process for the FPM course will be conducted through Skype.

As per latest reports, the admission process for the 2020-22 batch has been completed by MDI Gurgaon. The Director of the institute told that most of the admission process had been completed and only some part of the admission process has been postponed. As the situation is dynamic in nature, we are exploring other options to complete the process as soon as possible.

Despite the nationwide lockdown, IMT Ghaziabad has managed to complete the entire admission process for the batch 2020-22. The final selection result has also been released by the institute.

The admission process for the PGPM program at Great Lakes had been completed before the lockdown, but the admission process for PGDM courses is in final stages. The management is exploring options to complete the admission process smoothly. As per the dean of the institute, they have decided to forego physical interviews as it could jeopardise the safety of prospective students and the faculty. In order to minimise physical interaction, any further interviews will now only be conducted through Skype or alternate online platforms.

BIMTECH Greater Noida has managed to complete the final selection process and has already issued the offers for admission to the students of 2020-22 batch. The pending interviews will be conducted online.

IFIM Bangalore has managed to complete the admission process for its 2-year PGDM Program in the month of February itself. The institute recently invited application for admission to PGDM (IB) course which has been started in partnership with the State University of New York, Albany and Sydney Business School, University of Wollongong, Australia. The final selection process for the PGDM (IB) program is yet to be completed. The Director of the institute commented that their partnership with Pearson has allowed them to conduct assessments across multiple locations in the country followed by video interviews. Based on the preference of the aspirants, the faculty members present across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Bangalore are interacting with them.

Jaipuria Institute of Management is conducting the online admission process for all its campuses across the country through Skype. So, the candidates need not report at the campuses in Indore, Jaipur, Lucknow, or Noida. They can instead participate in the admission process remotely with the help of Skype. The institute has undertaken a planned and transparent approach to ensure that the selection process is fair and aspirants do not face any issues.

The institute managed to complete the interview process of the aspiring students by the first week of March 2020 itself. Thereafter, a shortlist was prepared and offered were made, following which the acceptance from candidates has been received. The Director of the institute said that they have started engaging with the students by sending them the literature and will start conducting webinars for them.

The Director stated that the institute is up for the challenge and is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the learning process does not get compromised. He advised the students to brush aside the distractions by considering them as a short-term interruption and instead focus on their studies.

These are some of the latest updates from the Indian education sector, which is reeling under the impact of Coronavirus. As new guidelines are being issued regularly by the WHO and the government, more and more institutes are cancelling classes and advising students to attend online classes until the situation normalises. It is anyone’s guess when the situation will normalise, and regular academic activities will resume.