Indian Institute of Foreign Trade BBA Review By Gunn Sachdeva

I am a student of Integrated Program in Management, here at IIFT Kakinada. The integrated program is a 5 year course with the first 3 years constituting a BBA degree in Business Analytics and last two years constituting an MBA degree in International Business. For me, this was the perfect choice as I come from a Commerce background but had always been curious about the subjects taught in other fields as well.

The Integrated program covers a wide variety of subjects from traditional commerce subjects like Financial Accounting, Cost and Management Accounting, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Finance, Marketing, etc. to Human Sciences like Sociology, Psychology, Political Science, etc. to skill development courses like MS Excel, Python, Database Management and so on. Apart from all these subjects, IIFT Kakinada also offers a specialization in Business Analytics in BBA. Business Analytics is a very in demand field today. To get into this program at IIFT Kakinada, you need to write IPMAT Indore exam. The selection criterion is your score in this exam along with 12th grade percentage. Having Mathematics (standard or applied) in grade 12 is also mandatory requirement.

The faculty is excellent as most of them are professors from IIFT Delhi and rest are highly distinguished visiting professors from some of the best institutes in the country. The case study method is used a lot and everything is taught with its practical applications in Business and in life. All the professors are very passionate about their subjects and are willing to help us out with anything and everything. Apart from the faculty, since the batch size is small, there are always seniors you can easily reach out to as everybody knows everybody.

We have three different organizations that help students gain internships. These are the Corporate Relations and Placement Division (CRPD), Alumni Relations Committee (ARC) and SpectHRum: the HR club. All three organizations work hard but since first batch of IIFT Kakinada will be graduating in 2027, there are no concrete final placement statistics as of yet. However, considering the IIFT legacy, expecting good placements is a reasonable train of thought.

IPM is a completely residential program which means that all students have to mandatorily stay in the hostels. The hostels are good. Rooms are clean, well-lit, and spacious. All rooms are double sharing. Cleaning is done every alternate day. The girl’s hostel is just 5 minutes from IIFT and 2 minutes from Dmart. The boy’s hostel is about 10 minutes far. Table tennis is available in the boy’s hostel.

The infrastructure in the classrooms is as good as it gets. However, since it is a temporary campus, not many facilities exist. But the permanent campus will be ready by 2025. The permanent campus will obviously have all the facilities - academic, sports and otherwise.

There are many clubs, chapters and committees. If students feel the need for a new club, they can also submit their own proposals for new clubs or chapters. Many fests of different types are also held. There is Aikyam: the sports fest, Request: the business fest, Cryptic Bonds: the investing fest. The cultural committee also ensures that we celebrate all festivals from all the different cultures. Since the batch size is small, you are sure to make great friends because friends will literally turn into your family here.