FAST FACTS
Location: Manipal, Karnataka
Director: Dr. Saji Gopinath
Approval/ Accreditation: AICTE-approved
Flagship programme: PGDM
Student intake: 180
Course fee (two years): Rs 715,000
Board & lodging (two years): Rs. 1.97 lakhs
Admission test cut-offs: CAT - 92/ GMAT 680
Full-time faculty: 36
Faculty with industry experience (over 10 years): 6
Average placement salary: Rs 6.38 lakhs
Key recruiters: Infosys, Cognizant Technology Services, TCS, Wipro
Student Activities: Atharva (annual inter-colligiate management fest), Brandscan (marketing research fair)
Website: www.tapmi.edu.in/
Other programmes: PGDM-Health Care mgmt 24 months PGDM-International Business 24 months PGDM-Banking & Financial Services 24 months e-Governance Programme for Executives (eGPX) 11 months
TAPMI recently moved to a swanky 42-acre campus in January 2009. While all students already reside on campus, the faculty residences are nearing completion. The well-equipped library houses the many cases prepared by the faculty and students of TAPMI, over 150 of which are registered with the European Case Clearing House. These cases are the outcome of TAMPI’s unique practice of converting students’ summer projects into cases, which resulted in the institute bagging the “Best Innovation in Management Education Award” by Association of Indian Management Schools.
“Teaching at Manipal is akin to the Gurukul system of education where you establish familial relationships not only with the staff and faculty but also with students, who keep in touch through Orkut, Facebook and Twitter,” says Prof. R C Natarajan who teaches marketing, in the midst of a simulation of Markstrat, designed by the INSEAD professors.
“The faculty members here enjoy complete academic freedom in terms of designing and delivering their courses and are answerable for all academic matters only to the faculty council, which meets every week,” he adds. The college has worked out a deal with the Harvard Business School for a fixed fee per year per student wherein students gets unlimited access to all their cases.
Special weightage is given to engineers, CAs and ICWAs in the admission process. Hence, it’s not surprising to learn that 83 percent of the current batch comprises engineers and there is only one girl student among four. From this year, TAPMI has started conducting the selection process involving essay writing extempore other than the regular GDs and interviews in cities other than Manipal to improve the quantity and quality of applicants. The applicants have increased this year to 7,000 from 4,400 last year but one notes that so have the seats jumped from 120 to 360, mostly due to the introduction of three new specialised MBAs.
“We are the first in India to have started the process for the international AACSB accreditation in 2003 and are sure of completing it this year. This would be in addition to the national level NBA and NAAC accreditations we already have,” says Prof. Chowdari Prasad, Dean- Corporate communications.
A second-year student with two years of prior work experience, who has been placed with a prominent IT company, plans to join them only if his award-winning venture of launching an online skill assessment portal doesn’t work out. A couple of other students are also excited about the fact that their award-winning business plan of using waste tyres and plastic in cement kilns is being implemented by one of the large cement manufacturers as a pilot project.
The institute needs to work hard on brand building and exchange programmes with foreign universities currently being limited to the first batch of five students going to Sheffield Hallam University, UK.