FAST FACTS
Location: Peenya, Bangalore Director: Dr. Kiran Reddy
Approval/Accreditation: AICTE approved
Flagship programme: MBA Student intake: 90
Fees (full course): Rs 500,000
Board & lodging (two years): Rs. 96,000
Admission test cut-offs: MAT/ AIMS - 50
Full-time faculty: 40 (Professors:15, Asstt. Profs:15, Sr. faculty: 9, Faculty: 1)
Faculty with industry experience (over 10 years): 4
Average placement salary: Rs. 3 lakhs
Top recruiters: Delloitte, Ernst & Young, Eli Lilly, HSBC Student Activities: Gitam (management excellence meet)
Other programmes: PGDM (Part-time) 24 months PGDITM (Part- time) 24 months PGCM- (Part-time) 12 months BBM. 36 months
Web site: www.acharyaaims.ac.in
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BEGUN with a focus on helping less privileged aspirants, the Acharya Institute of Management Studies (AIMS) admits 50 percent of its students through Karnataka PGCET and the rest through the AIMS test. While PGCET students pay Rs. 1 lakh as fees, the rest have to shell out a hefty sum of Rs. 5 lakhs for the two-year degree.
The extra fees cover a laptop, a two-month SAP course and a foreign study tour. PGCET students can avail of these by paying extra. In addition, 10 deserving students receive scholarships that waive off the entire fee of Rs. 1 lakh. A language lab with a qualified voice and accent trainer helps students improve their English communication skills.
Being affiliated to Bangalore University, the institute does not have the autonomy of modifying or developing its course structure and curriculum, and the curriculum revision is done only once every three years at the university level.
Most of the students specialise in Marketing, Finance or HR. Students are taken for a diagnostic outbound training in the first semester.
Other than case studies, live projects and industrial visits, there are industry specific “augmentation” courses (for a week or so) to help student prepare for a specific industry/job profile.
AIMS has streamlined its development focus in different areas by setting up five centres of excellence, one each in the areas of Research, Entrepreneurship, International Liaison and Training & Development. Of these, entrepreneurship under the leadership of Prof. K. Ranganathan is the most active. “Prof. Ranganathan motivated and guided me to become one of the four Stanford-IIMB certified entrepreneurship faculty at the campus,” says Indranil Matsuddi, OB & HR faculty. “We have the leeway to earn extra income by teaching at training programmes,” adds Asst. Prof.Veena K.N.
AIMS was recently given the award “Best College in India for Entrepreneurship Education in 2008” by NITIE, Mumbai. Their six-member advisory council, comprises entrepreneurs who guide budding entrepreneurs on campus and also give students live projects to work on. A student recently won the business plan competition at IIM-Indore for her plan for automating arecanut peeling. She also helped the innovator set up the business, which achieved a turnover of Rs. 2 crore in just two years.
The entrepreneurship cell also motivated the institute’s support staff to start an organisation called Sphoorthikiran, an example of microfinance, entrepreneurship and cooperative society, rolled into one. It collects small amounts of money from all members, and also generates revenue by selling products on a commission basis. The income is used to give soft loans to members in their hour of need.
The institute recently acquired 4 acres of adjoining land which would help it to build a residential campus for students. Students say, many of them joined AIMS after coming to know that the faculty has good industry experience. “I came to know that the syllabus gets finished here unlike many other institutes,” a student informs us.