Ravenshaw University on Friday announced the launch of a five-year integrated MBA programme in Financial Markets in collaboration with the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
The first of its kind of programme in the State and the second in India after Punjab University will aim at churning out skilled professionals to meet the requirements of the financial markets, banking and insurance sectors.
An MoU was signed between AVP, NSE, Rana Usman and University Registrar Padan Kumar Jena in the presence of Vice-Chancellor Prof BC Tripathy and head of NSE Educational Initiatives GC Sharma here on Friday.
“As per estimate, more than 62 lakh professionals would be required by the financial and capital market sector, banks, MFCs and insurance companies by 2020. There is already huge shortfall in skilled workforce in these sectors. The new course will not only strive to address the industry needs of trained professionals but also open new vistas of knowledge development in the financial sector,” Usman said.
The course with 60 seats will have modules developed jointly by the NSE and the University. It will include 22 specialised modules of the National Certification in Financial Markets (NCFM) of NSE.
The NSE will train the faculty of the University in imparting education as per the NCFM modules and also depute expert guest faculty for the programme. For the NCFM modules, the examinations would be conducted directly by the NSE with the students having to appear for them online.
“The programme has a unique feature that allows students to exit after three years. Those who do so will be awarded BBA degree in Financial Markets and those who complete the five years will have the MBA,” Prof Tripathy said.
The University has, however, expressed disappointment over the apathy of the Government in increasing faculty positions or filling up the existing vacancies. The University has been pressing for creation of at least 165 more faculty posts in view of the increase in student strength and opening of new courses.
Ironically, Ravenshaw in its former college state had about 252 faculty strength which was cut down to 153 after it was elevated to a University.
Increase in faculty is a dire necessity of the University now as it has become extremely difficult to impart quality education to the students, whose number has gone up to over 8,000. Further new courses are being added to comply with the UGC norms.
The University has also announced launch of Post-graduate programmes in Sanskrit, Statistics and International Studies from this academic session.