S. Vishnu Sharma
IIM Calcutta will be commencing classes online for its flagship MBA programme on 10 August. About 480 students of 2020-2022 batch will be a part of these digital classes.
Students of IIM Calcutta who have joined this programme are from across the country.
IIM Calcutta 2020
Covid-19 and social distancing have presented the institute with an unprecedented challenge this year.
However, IIM Calcutta and their faculty have shown remarkable resilience and adaptability in switching temporarily to digital delivery for the benefit of the students.
Sources from IIM Calcutta said they have been seamlessly working since April to plan, develop and deliver online courses to ensure the timely commencement of the One Year Full-Time Residential Executive MBA, MBAEx and PostGraduate Program for Executives – Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing (PGPEX-VLM) programmes, while ensuring students’ learning is not compromised.
The admissions process was in full swing at IIM Calcutta when the COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on March 13.
However, keeping the safety of the candidates, the staff and the faculty members in mind, all admission interviews were conducted online.
Additionally, since it was infeasible to conduct written ability test with fairness in the online admission process, IIM Calcutta decided not to consider the weightage given for WAT for the final selection of MBA 2020-22 batch to maintain the fairness and consistency of the admissions process for all candidates.
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Professor Megha Sharma, Chairperson, Admissions at IIM Calcutta said subsequent to the admissions process, the registration process for the batch of 2020-22 is currently going-on.
More than 35% of the incoming students are females. In terms of academic diversity, this year close to 20% of the incoming students are from non-engineering backgrounds.
Similarly, in terms of prior work experience, more than 60 percent of the batch has prior work experience, she said.
IIM Calcutta has been spearheading the digital space for a long time, and now are creating technology solutions for the MBA students to mimic the classroom experience to the extent possible in online mode.
Professor Peeyush Mehta, Operations Management Group at IIM Calcutta said to make the learning experience better the students will be distributed across six sections of class strength 80 of each section.
There would be an average of 4-5 hours of total classroom live contact hours, he said.
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IIM Calcutta will also assist students facing internet issues in numerous ways, including providing recordings of a missed class, opportunity to interact with the instructors after the class, additional tutorials, and other possible help in academic activities, he said.
A 10 day orientation programme for students of MBA of 2020-2022, 57th batch and the new doctoral students is being conducted online.
This programme for the students of IIM Calcutta began at July 30, the programme includes interaction with faculty with all academic groups, addresses by Chairperson- Admissions, Dean-Academic, Dean-NIER, Chairperson-CDPO, and CAO.
Other sessions to be held are on plagiarism, sensitization towards equal opportunities for students, Entrepreneurship@IIMC, Gender Sensitization, Library orientation, briefing on Anti Ragging Regulations and on case analysis.
There will also be an address by the President of the Student’s Council. Sources at IIM Calcutta further said The Freshers’s welcome function will be organised digitally as well on August 8.
The Director, Chairperson, Board of Governors and the Chief Guest of the function Mr. Patanjali G Keswani, an IIM Calcutta distinguished alumnus awardee and CMD, Lemon Tree Hotels will address the students.
Director of IIM Calcutta Professor Anju Seth said at IIM Calcutta we are eagerly waiting to welcome the incoming MBA batch of 2020.
Overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic, we have put a plan in place to ensure an excellent learning experience through online onboarding and instruction for the incoming batch.
I am confident that despite the prevailing scenario, we will be able to live-up to the expectation of an
excellent learning experience of our students.
As IIM Calcutta reopens in online mode, several steps have been taken to both sustain our academic rigour and preserve the unique teaching and learning experience on a digital platform.
Pankaj Meena, a student of the incoming batch said cracking IIM interviews amidst COVID times and coming out successful was a victory never thought of.
However difficult the onboarding process seemed in the beginning, the PGP2 batch warmly aided the induction and maneuvered learning in the new normal.
‘The semester surely begins online, but I am exhilarated for experiencing campus perse. Excited to finally be a Jokar!’