Though just four years old, International School of Business and Research (ISBR), Chennai, has the potential to become a top business school in the near future. The half-an-acre campus in Uthandi on East Coast Road is home to over 200 students and 15 faculty. “We emphasise on an integrated view of business practices, focus on information technology, aim to develop the professional skills of students and prepare them for life and teach them to look beyond academics,” says Achuth Kumar, the institute’s director.
ISBR has been giving youngsters management gyaan for more than 20 years through their Bangalore campus. The Chennai chapter was established in 2007. “Chennai is an industrial city and not only a preferred destination for technical education but also serves as an appropriate place to pursue management programmes,” says Kumar.
“My expectations were maximum knowledge and exposure to the outside world. ISBR has given me both,” says Inderjeet Kaur, a second-year MBA student. “We learn from each other through formal and informal feedback and sharing of experiences,” chips in Aishwarya Srinivasan, first-year, MBA.
Courses offered
The institute, established under the Bangalore Educational Trust, offers full-time and part-time MBA programmes with specialisations in marketing, sales, HR, finance, operation management, retail management, health care and hospitality, telecom and international business system and IT.
A whiff of fresh air
ISBR truly caters to the young managers, if one goes by the average age of the faculty — Its CEO, Bharath Jain, is just 23 years old and most of the teachers are around 35 years. “We believe in total personality development, regular training on soft skills, business communication, time management, emotional intelligence and public speaking,” explains Jain. “Students should look for quality education and not unrealistic placement packages. It is sad that B-schools are ranked on their placement records.”
For students
The AICTE-accredited institute has an exchange programme with BEM International Business School, Bordeaux, France. It regularly arranges networking meetings for students, guest lectures, industry visits, active student cells and clubs. Sonalina Choudhury of CISCO, Ajay Arora of TIME education services, NS Ramaswamy of Indian Heritage Academy etc have regaled the students with their experiences.
Infrastructure
The campus is Wi-Fi enabled, has separate hostels for girls and boys that have swimming pools, a library and a cafeteria. The institute lays great stress on the physical fitness of its students — there are regular intercollegiate matches in cricket, volley ball, table tennis, badminton etc. They also host a culfest called Zenith where top management institutes in the city like IFMR, Great Lakes Institute of Management and LIBA participate.
“We help them (students) discover themselves, come to terms with their strengths and weaknesses and be more socially responsible instead of merely chasing the big bucks,” says Kumar.
Placements
The graduates have been recruited by HP, Infosys, Wipro, Siemens, Reliance and Tata group with an average package of `3 lakh per annum. The institute, in the near future, plans to offer more UG and PG courses, a law college and also hopes to collaborate with more foreign universities.
ISBR has started issuing application forms. Last date to apply is March 30. The MBA course fee is `3.5 lakh. The institute offers Vidyajyoti Scholarships, a nationwide initiative to help meritorious students pursue higher studies in management at ISBR. Students will be given a fee waiver that’ll be based upon their performance in academics and a test.
shilpa.vasudevan@expressbuzz.com