It's interesting to find in many MBA, BBA and post graduate colleges, the focus is heavily placed on academics while a few others go with a blend of academics and little research. Hardly fewer would be there to adopt a more experiential approach by using teachers having industry experience. What do you think would be the most important area of emphasis if you were to produce good management graduates?
Hi Arhan, you have raised a very relevant issue for the sustainable and furtherance of business education. In my opinion academic and Experiential approach go hand in hand to offer efficacy. In the past, when the number of B. Schools was less admitting less number of aspirants, the corporate sector also used to welcome the Trainees to provide Experiential learning. But as on date situation has worsened, the majority of the sector find happiness in issuing Training Certificate instead of providing and the real life platform to the aspirants. In this situation from where the Experiential approach will come and we the teachers have to be contented with academic part only.
With regard to research also, en-number of Research Projects and Thesis are produced every year but largely with fake data while naming the survey institutions where either the researcher did not visit or he/she was not allowed to conduct survey. Then from where real research outcome will come.But student has no option except for it as Research Project is largely compulsory part of the study.
To combat this there need a proper balance in between demand and supply. Today supply is more due to various reasons but demand is comparably less. Hence entry and exit measure for completion of the course need to stringent. Moreover provide real training should be "Social Responsibility" agenda of the corporate.
All of the above added by a deep sense of social concerns and business ecology.
If our MBAs cannot become valuable entrepreneurs and only adhere to subordinate business (salesman) positions it is a serious question on the quality/ability of the business education in India. Rather, business education seems to have become a business detached from the reality and ethics.
Thanks.
Prof. Dr. Punia, I appreciate your opinion. Being a faculty member now with 22 years of industry experience, I tend to allocate more weightage to the experiential learning component than almost all faculty members in our university colleges in Kathmandu, Nepal. Then, research is like my second love. Striking a happy balance has been my professional endeavour. As a former manager at Nepal's two leading foreign joint venture banks, I believe the corporate sector wants the MBA graduates who could be directly transferable from the class to workplaces and it's not going to be possible as long as the graduates are equipped with real-time experience. Just injecting a larger dose of academics and research nitty-gritties is not going to help the business graduates either. As you've rightly said, training institutes' training certificates have now constituted the core of certifications they would produce before the potential employers but for too little use. Thanks a lot Prof. Punia for your opinion and experiences from India. Many problems related to post graduate research works in India also are similar to those in my country Nepal. Looking forward to getting more insights from you, sir.
Thanks Mohammad Israr Khan sir. I appreciate your sense of social concerns and business ecology. Thanks, sir
Learning theories in the class room improves knowledge base; but practical application of knowledge is essential for skill development. Hence, the need of experiential learning. Research enables extension of existing knowledge and creation of new knowledge. The success of professional education like MBA, depends on its ability to enable skill development through theoretical knowledge as well as practical application. Therefore, academic program may be devised based on prudent mix of theory and practice. The experiential learning may be properly emphasized, in order to fulfill the industries' expectation from MBAs, Industries being the bulk recruiters.
In my opinion , right attitude takes the first place in producing good business graduates . All other aspects which are mentioned like academics, experiential approach , research, etc will follow. In the Bloom's classification of learning domains , the affective domain is considered with equal importance along with cognitive and psychomotor domains . The Affective domain has received less attention, and is less intuitive than the Cognitive. But in today's business education affective domain gets the least importance compared to the other domains .Unless this affective domain is addressed adequately in the curriculum with a good blend of other important activities such as teaching , learning , research, internship ,extracurricular and co-curricular activities , the dream of producing good business graduates will continue to remain only as a dream?
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