Education Has to be Research Based

Established in 1993, Jagan Institute of Management Studies is now regarded as a premier business school in India. Manish Gupta, Chancellor, JIMS, spoke to Sheena Joseph about various aspects of management education

Please share with us the inspiration behind JIMS.

The main inspiration behind the institute is the ambition to create a better centre for higher education. But then we realised that under graduate education is also required. IP and JIMS commenced operations simultaneously. We have also kept our fees at very nominal rate. We have two campuses and one university in Jaipur. We are also trying to set up our university in Haryana.

What according to you is the importance of Industry – Academic interface? What have been the significant achievements of JIMS in this regard?

Industry is our primary customer, then come the students. If we develop our courses according to the industry specifications, then we can make our students happy.

What measures have you taken to ensure that the course material being imparted at the Institute is updated with the latest requirements?

Since we develop our courses according to the industry standards, we believe that our students should be updated with the current corporate environment, for this purpose we have organised a summit last month in which corporate leaders were called to share their views about the current industry requirement and how we can amend our syllabus for the same.

How has ICT technology been incorporated into the educational system at your college? What are your views on the importance of ICT in education?

We believe that ICT plays a vital role in today’s environment. We are already using lease lines OHPs, CDs, Internet connections both LAN as well as WiFi. At times we have guest lectures in an auditorium with the capacity of approx 200-
250. These lectures are also beamed to different classrooms so that all students can listen and benefit from the speech. We are also in discussion stage to have satellite technology in our institute.

With foreign collaborations being an important element for many higher education institutes, could you elucidate the collaborations that JIMS is exploring?

In initial stages, we began with the faculty exchange programme with foreign universities. But later due to AICTE notifications we were not able to continue with this. We are waiting for the right policy to start again so that we can start
with the foreign exchange again.

What is the importance of research based education in today’s changing times? Does JIMS contribute towards intensive research in the education sector?

Education has to be research based. While teaching to our students we try our best to ensure that the content is of best possible quality. For this we encourage our faculties to indulge in lot of educational research, so that the best outcomes become possible. We are clearly aware that whatever is taught needs to be based on proper research. Since education is becoming globally acceptable, one has to face the challenges and for that a proper research is required.

Please shed light on the role of private Institutes.

With the set up of private institutions, any child who passes 10+2 has many options. I remember the time of 1989 or 1985, when a child had to work very hard and very few seats were there. Parents were not able to afford high fees. Now they can continue with their studies. The private institutes are helping many students to gain quality education at reasonable costs. Basically the institutions are leading to a social inclusion on a large scale. Even children with lower marks can find quality institutions. Our only purpose is to serve the students; if our students are satisfied then our purpose is achieved.

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