Beating the summer heat

Basking in the glory of their students having received plum offers and first-year batches undergoing internships, what are management schools up to this vacation?

Managment institutes are using the time and campus infrastructure to provide corporate and staff training while faculty members are using the opportunity to spend more time in their research papers and case studies which often take a back seat during the academic year due to hectic teaching classroom schedules.

For instance, Xavier's Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur, has opened its premises to students of its post-graduate certificate programme in business management "�a 14-month satellite programme offered to students from various cities.

The students come to stay on the campus for a week. The institute is also training employees of State Bank of India on its campus during the summer vacation.

Similarly, IIM Calcutta has also opened up its student residential facilitities to accomodate 150 students for a week through its long-distance satellite programmes in collaboration with NIIT and Hughes.

At the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi, students are preparing a budget for the next academic year and are drafting out plans for the symposiums and seminars the institute will organise this year.

"Students who are doing their internship in and around Delhi, come to the institute and plan how and when they should conduct the seminars," says an IIFT faculty member.

The faculty members on the other hand are busy attending seminars abroad and writing research work. Some of the faculty members have also signed up for short fellowship programmes and joint research projects with faculty members from international institutes

At Xavier's Institute of Management- Bhubaneshwar and IIM Kozhikode, it is learning time for faculty and staff members. XIM is training its staff in human resource skills, behavioural skills and computer operation.

"Our staff members made requests to us on what they want to learn. We are providing them with training on all the fronts that they require," said a faculty member.

Faculty members of IIM Kozhikode will have two Faculty Development Programmes (FDPs) conducted at the campus this summer which will focus on 10 main management areas, a module on research, one for measuring pedagogy and a three-week programme for professors who have been in the teaching profession for less than five years.

At IIM Ahmedabad, there will be no FDPs since they are normally conducted in the month of October in the institute for four weeks but the institute has been kept busy by the three courses that are running currently on the campus"�the One year Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX), One year postgraduate programme in Public Management and Policy (PGP-PMP) and the six month Certificate Course in Business Administration"�for officers of the armed forces.

The institute has also initiated a Post Graduate Programme (PGP) Review Committee comprising of around 10 faculty members who will analyse the course module, design, format, profile and delivery to the students. At IIM Kozhikode, a committee has reviewed its programme following the convocation and has submitted the X.