ICFAI Business School BBA Review By Arshad Ansari

Hi, I have studied at IBS-D from 2014 to 2017. One disclaimer that I will narrate what I witnessed or experienced as it would be your final call to join it or not. The management has the knack of sugar-coating before the admissions but once you are admitted they hardly care. The infrastructure of the campus is both good and bad. The campus is big but hardly maintained. The washrooms were broken, and the class windows were broken. After the first year, one has to choose the field and it isn’t by choice, the college itself distributes students with the marks they had in the first two semesters. If it was told to me before, I would have tried a little extra. So, marketing for me was not selective but an elective by the college itself. The college started with an orientation program in which students chilled for two days and after some time realized that we will be doing it for the rest of the time.

In terms of academics, there are better options available for BBA in Dehradun itself. The reason is academics as the portions were changed frequently and whatever was left behind in the classrooms, we were assured that nothing from it will come in exams. Many important topics were therefore left behind. The college runs extra classes for CAT entrance and those were the classes where the best academics happened. We were prepared for IBSAT as ICFAI Hyderabad which is one of the best B-Schools in India can be targeted through that. Coming to BBA, Doon Business School, is the best option for BBA or MBA than IBS-D.

Teachers were indeed the best part of IBS. The one problem here is that we just had 10-12 faculties in all for the entire course. Coming to the teaching by our faculty, some of them were so brilliant that I enjoyed their subjects and some of them didn’t even have the slightest idea but still they were hired to teach us. The faculties which I thought will keep increasing with the semesters but exactly the opposite of that happened. The same faculty taught us Operations Research, Business Law, and Human Behavior & Ethics at Workplace. A single faculty taught us all three subjects and now imagine the kind of pressure she had in teaching. They couldn't give their best as their workload was unimaginable.

This is one area where marketing students rocked. Sales profiles were the need of the hour as many banking and insurance companies interviewed BBA and MBA students simultaneously. Jobs quality and figures might be less but our marketing batch had 90 students and all wished to have campus placements, they would have had it. Of course, the figures are low initially but results can take people further as getting into companies like HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank is not possible off-campus. Placements for MBA are still better than BBA placements that need a bit more attention.

IBS-D doesn’t have their hostels as the college has tie-ups with some private parties. The contractual hostels of IBS-D were a mile away from the campus. There were four such hostels and remind you they were better facilitated than the IBS Campus. For those who don’t want to stay at the hostels, the area is full of PGs and monthly mess. Staying close to the campus is beneficial as getting a campus life exposure by staying close can be easily availed.

The campus was big and had many facilities like a tennis court, basketball court, and a volleyball court. The classrooms were quite poor as the entire BBA had 7 classrooms including 1st and 2nd year. The benches were poor and looking at the classrooms, no one can believe that BBA students sit there. Even the windows of the classrooms were broken. The fees are such that they could afford ACs in the classrooms but they didn’t. The library was there but with moderate books. The best thing about the campus was the cafeteria which was on the rooftop. The beautiful Shivalik range and the Himalayas can be seen from the cafeteria. To take a break and relax at the campus, a small but good recreation room was built.

Campus life was a mixed one because two events that the college organized, Sufi Night and Welcome Trip were the best part of the campus life. During the Welcome Trip, we were taken to Mussoorie and George Everest. Now coming to the fests, the management has left everything to the students. The students who headed the committee had to go and collect money from the students. They had to arrange the stage, food, and DJ on their own. Luckily, most students that enroll here come from a well to do family, so getting cash from the students wasn’t a problem but the students had to do the job which comes under the college’s responsibility.