Careers360 - Think higher education! Select institutions funded by corporates. Should you join?

Select institutions funded by corporates. Should you join?
Business doyens with enviable reputations set them up. We explore how good they are...
by Team Careers360
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TATAS, Reliance, Infosys, Oberois, Mahindra, Bharti, ONGC and IOC are comparable to the best in class in their specific business domains. And most of them are in the private sector. But, think of Indian education institutions that are comparable to the best in their class, not even one comes immediately to mind. Prof. Richard Levin, President, Yale University almost said so, when he commented about IITs and IIMS as good teaching instituions. And both of them are in the public domain.

It is not as if higher education in India does not have private players. Seventy five percent of engineering colleges and 90% of B-Schools have private providences. The situation would be more or less similar in other professional domains.

Some of them do have impressive infrastructure, but in terms of quality of students, faculty, research and institutional prestige, most of them have a lot of catching up to do. The impossible constraints that the archaic rules put on these players also act as a dampener. But world over, especially in the US, it is the private universities, especially those funded by big corporate/businessperson donors, that are the biggest and the best. Be it Harvard, Yale, Princeton or MIT. In India too, such a scenario is emerging, wherein corporate houses with deep pockets are entering education. Be it Shiv Nadar of HCL, Sunil Mittal of Bharti or Azim Premji of Wipro, all of them want to or have set up education institutions.

Now a corporate-funded university comes with its own set of advantages. First, of course, is the financial muscle. NIIT University has an initially outlay of 200 crores, Nadar speaks about a 250-acre campus. The now stopped Vedanta campus came in with a whopping Rs. 4,000 crore endowment. They have a reputation to defend. So the quality would be better. LNMIT, the brainchild of steel baron Lakshmi Mittal boasts of an engineering faculty line-up which is one of the best outside the IIT system. Jindal University has the prespective to set up a School of International Studies with renowned scholars at its helm. So what is in it for you as a student? Read on to find out…

THE BIG PLAYERS

BITS Pilani
Corporate: Birla
Group

One of Asia’s best engineering schools, known for its practice schools

NIIT University
Corporate: NIIT

Provisioned to have 5,000 students, an integrated campus

OP Jindal University
Corporate: Jindals

One of the well known attempts at creating an American-style law school

LN Mittal IT
Corporate: Arcelor Mittal

With ambitions to be the new BITS,Pilani, an IT institute in the making

Reliance University
Corporate: Reliance

A proposed university in association with LSE, UK

SSN Institutions
Corporate: HCL Group

Four member federation of independent schools

Nirma University
Corporate: Nirma Group

A state private university with national ambitions

Campus reviews of corporate institutes across the country:

BITS Pilani FAST FACTS Established: 1964 Vice- Chancellor: Prof. Bijendra Nath Jain Programmes: BE, B Pharma, MSc, MPhil, ME, MBA Approval/Accreditation: NAAC accredited deemed to be University Selection: BITSAT, merit basis Full-time faculty: 305 Top recruiters: Microsoft, Air Liquide, BHEL, KPMG Conferences: Nano Microelectronics and Embedded System Student activities: Oasis, Apogee, Interface Website: www.bits-pilani.ac.in READ REVIEW	NIIT University FAST FACTS Established: 2009 Location: Neemrana President: Rajeev Shorey Programmes: BTech, MTech, PhD, MBA Approval/ Accreditation: Declared as a State university by Govt. of Rajasthan Selection: Merit basis Full-time faculty: 34 Top recruiters: NA Seminar: Engineering Student activities: NA Website: www.niituniversity.in READ REVIEW
SSN Institution, Chennai FAST FACTS Established: 1996 Location: Kalavakkam (near Chennai) President: Kala Vijayakumar Programmes: BE,ME MBA, MCA Approval: AICTE approved, affiliated to Anna University Accreditation: National Board of Accreditation Faculty: 219 Top recruiters: Intel, Infosys, HCL, Wipro, Yahoo, Zenta, Reliance Communications, TCS, LIC, Microsoft, CISCO, Oracle, IBM; Student activities: INSTINCTS; SSN Trophy; Website: www.ssn.edu.in READ REVIEW	LNM Institute of Technology FAST FACTS Established: 2003 Location: Jaipur Director: Dr. Sudhir Raniwala Programmes: BTech, Mtech.MS, PhD Approval/ Accreditation: NAAC accreditation in process Selection: Written test, interview Full-time faculty: 30 Top recruiters: Ericsson, Sapient, Infosys, TCS Seminars: Science of IT, Communication skills, Abuses of Tobacco Student activities: Dance competitions, TGMC workshop, Football tournament Website: www.lnmiit.ac.in READ REVIEW
Tata Institute of Social Sciences FAST FACTS Established: 1936 Location: Mumbai Dean: Professor Sharit Bhowmik Programmes: MA/PG Diplomas Approval/ Accreditation: Deemed University Selection: CAT/In-house Full-time faculty: 81 Top recruiters: Accenture, Marico, Dale Carnigie, Cap Gemini, Tata Sons Student Activities: Manthan (student fest), Web site: www.tiss.edu READ REVIEW	O.P Jindal Global University FAST FACTS Established: 2009 Location: Sonipat, Haryana Vice-Chancellor: Prof. C Raj Kumar Programmes: BA LLB, LLM, MBA, PhD Approval/ Accreditation: UGC notified Private University Selection: Written test, Merit Full-time faculty: 46 Top recruiters: NA Seminar: NA Student activities: Intramural tournament, Invicita Website: www.jgls.org READ REVIEW
NIRMA University FAST FACTS Established: 2003 Location: Ahmedabad President: Karsan Bhai Patel Approval/ Accreditation: UGC recognised University Programmes: BTech, MTech, MCA, PhD, MBA, BPharm, MSc, BA LLB Selection: Written test, GD, PI, merit Full-time faculty: 321, Top recruiters: Ultratech, Torrent Power, RIL, Essar Seminar: NICOM, Chemozale, Technoodyssey Student activities: Richter-10 (annual cultural event); Prayag-management Conclave Website: www.nirmauni.ac.in. READ REVIEW	Select programmes A comprehensive listing of programmes, eligibility, fee structure and more, of institutions backed by corporates. VIEW LISTING

Upcoming institutions

RELIANCE UNIVERSITY : Marrying arts and technology

The Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Foundation is setting up a university in collaboration with the London School of Economics. The foundation has already set up schools. Before the Reliance Empire split up, it founded the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology in 2001 (DA-IICT). It later gained State Private University Status in Gujarat.

The university is modelled on the lines of American universities such as The University of Pennsylvania, and according to Mukesh Ambani, Chairman-Reliance Group it would be “international in scale and in best practices, but with an Indian soul.”

The university will initially offer undergraduate courses, and postgraduate and doctoral courses in domains ranging from liberal arts to technology. Nita Ambani, President of the Reliance Foundation is heading the project.

AZIM PREMJI UNIVERSITY : An institute for educational studies
The Azim Premji Foundation has been working for a decade now to set up a university. A brainchild of Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro, Azim Premji University, Bangalore is being established under the Government of Karnataka’s Azim Premji University Act, 2010.

The institution will focus on fundamental, applied and action research to expand the frontiers of knowledge in education and development. Specialisation areas in education would be Teacher Education, Education Philosophy, Sociology, Social Anthropology, Pedagogy of Science, Social Science and Language, Education Technology, Economics of Education and such topics.

In the domain of development, the research and learning will focus on Development Economics, Social Research, Governance, Environment and Ecology and Health to start with.

The distinguishing characteristics of this university is likely to be accommodating a community of such individuals who would develop a deep understanding of the social impact of education and its role in creating awareness on issues related to development and policy. The University is likely to commence admissions by mid-2011 with interim arrangements before the full-fledged integrated campus comes up on the outskirts of Bangalore by 2012.

Can Corporate-funded universities compete with the rest?

Be it the ultra plush and comfy environs of Jindal University, the eco-sensitive carbon foot print reducing NIIT University, or the research-obsessed SSN College, corporate-backed universities are furrowing new avenues.

In terms of investments, academic leadership and quality of inputs, they appear to have got most of the decisions right. Though cost is a prohibitive factor in some of these institutions, scholarships and fellowships might mitigate the pain at least to some extent. So, if it is a reasonable quality education in a better ambience your quest, all of them are worthwhile options to look at. The return on investment from some of these institutions may not be that exciting initially, but then education is a life-long investment. So the larger question is, do these colleges or universities have within themselves the kernel to become great institutions, at least in the Indian context in the coming decade?

It is impossible to hazard a guess right now, but three issues immediately comes to one’s mind. The first is that, all these institutions need to invest heavily in an in-house faculty development programme (PhD), since they even at the initial stage struggle to get the quorum of faculty. The diversity of student pool is another factor they need to focus on. Costs of education needs to be buffered for brilliant but economically weak students, since quality of students is the sine qua non for a great institution. Thirdly, consolidation must be the focus rather than indiscriminate expansion or else the initial quality thrust that is essential to build organisational DNA would get lost.

All these are larger concerns. But in the medium-term they would impact each student, since your alma mater remains with you throughout your life. In the mean time, if you can afford them, they do offer an exciting learning experience.

Are you a student or alumnus of any of these institutes? Post your review in the comment box below.

Published on: December 07, 2010
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2 Comments

chandan | Feb 21, 2011

hi sir i m commerce graduate from gaya i need a job in a commercial bank thanks

Akhilesh saini | Dec 16, 2010

Sir i want to start a new business but i have no income and no any garanty so i am in troble .so i want to know about any business loan or any bank who give loan in minimum condition.

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