Monday, April 6, 2009

Poor placements take sheen away from ISB graduation day

Hyderabad, April 5 The Board of Director of Indian School of Business (ISB) will take special measures to ensure placements to all the students who graduated this year, according to Mr Rajat Gupta, Chairman, Board of ISB.

Speaking at the eighth graduation ceremony of the Hyderabad-based business school here on Saturday, Mr Gupta asked the board members to ensure “a better placement experience for ISB this year”.

Over 100 students of 437 students of the Class of 2009 did not find placements due to recession. The high-profile business school was ranked 15 among the top 100 global business schools by the Financial Times.

Mr Ajit Rangnekar, Dean of ISB, said the year was a challenging time for placements and the prospects of experienced professionals were worst hit.

“Today, you may hate the experience. ISB had faced (the) same trouble during the first batch of ISB eight years ago. But those students are now industry leaders,” he said.

ISB would also be setting up a taskforce to identify right opportunities for the students.

EXPANSION

The school plans to introduce four specialist schools at its second campus at Mohali, which is getting ready. The Max India Institute of Healthcare Management, BML Munjal Institute of Manufacturing and Operational Excellence, Bharti Institute of Public Policy and Punj Lloyd Institute of Physical Infrastructure Management would be coming up at Mohali.

“The main campus here will also have a doctoral programme and an executive post graduate programme from 2010-11,” he added.

Mr Arun Sarin, former chief executive officer of Vodafone Group Plc, who participated as chief guest, said the emerging economies, led by China and India, would a play major role in the years to come. “You will see more meetings of G-20 nations rather than those of G-7,” he said.

In the time of economic slowdown, innovation and new business models would keep emerging, he said, adding that students should think of entrepreneurship.

GLOOMY MOOD

The general mood at ISB, which had seen jubilant graduation days till now, was dull as one-fourth of the students were not successful in campus placements.

“It seems that our timing was wrong. The students (and their parents) who had taken educational loans and quit good jobs to pursue studies are the main victims,” a student who did not like to be identified told Business Line.

ISB assured them to provide placement assistance by including them in the campus placement programme for next two years, he added.

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