GIBS Business School PGDM Review By Ashish Barthwal

GIBS Business School in Bangalore is quite a new College; however, since its set-up in one of the prominent industrial hubs in India, it will offer some decent placements. One of the main reasons to choose the College was the placement factor. The College is on the outskirts of the city, and getting a place near the Institution enabled me to prevent getting into the massive traffic jams of Bangalore. Finding jobs or getting placed is not that hard. However, the College is yet to make up for other departments as it is a B-School offering a couple of courses. Since the College is getting on its feet in the coming years, there may be crucial changes that may allow students to look forward to taking up higher studies at this Institution. Like I came from Roorkee, students came from far to study here.

The academic curriculum is fleshed out quite well, with the syllabus covering the entire gamut of topics required for business degrees. Trending and current business scenarios are touched upon in case studies with guest lectures from various industrialists to give us insight into the actual functioning of businesses. These discussions also allowed us to know, apart from the theoretical knowledge, the practicality of on-job experiences from the professionals themselves. The fixed College timings worked to our advantage as we could use the free time to check out the reference books in the library, which most of my friends did, while some of us took time out to explore the city. GIBS has done remarkably well with its academics.

Some of the faculty were former College students who had completed their bachelor's in business administration and pursued PGDM from this College. The remaining faculty were hired from other places. The subjects themselves weren't challenging though they required preparation beforehand. Some internal tests and projects need to be completed as a part of the curriculum. The students have a free hand to participate in discussions and get their doubts cleared, with the professors giving ample chances for the students to express themselves and give honest opinions on the course subjects. However, they are friendly and happen to understand our perspective when there are interactive sessions. Faculties' qualifications may not match with IIMs or other top B-Schools, but their lookout and approach were at par with them.

There is an excellent scope of placement with the IT hub in the vicinity. You can look forward to getting good placements. Companies come in with their preferences and take up the task of hiring the best candidates through interviews in various other analytical tests. There were also varied job roles that they looked out for and were happy to select us. They gave the offer letter after ten days, which kept some anxious; as I was the one with only one offer at hand. However, there wasn't much competition as almost all students got placed, and some had multiple offers. Average placements were somewhere between 4.5-5.5 lakhs.

As the premises were new and set up in 2012, the building was clean and well-maintained. There are all modern amenities for the students to stay comfortably. There were several amenities for the students. There was ample greenery on the campus, which relieved every city's bane of concrete structures covering the landscape. With the boys' hostel out and girls inside the campus, I felt discriminated against. However, we didn't have a choice since the College is far from Bangalore central. You had to stay near the College to prevent wasting time commuting to and from the College and avoid wasting time, money and getting stuck in the awful traffic jams of the city.

The campus isn't a sprawling kind, but a nice accommodating one with all the amenities. It is a newly built building; hence, the striking part; it is clean and well-maintained. The modern amenities are part of the College's infrastructure, as most of the classes were taken using digital devices. The founder's statue is also part of the campus. There happens to be an advanced digital library for our usage and was our shelter during the examination to catch up on our studies. There are two well-equipped duplex auditoriums, which make the campus full-fledged for any occasion and event that business schools often conduct, such as fests or symposiums.

Most of our campus time was spent at the hostel, and it was a lot of fun as they were like-minded students. As we chatted and enjoyed each other's company, we didn't miss out on on-campus fun. I felt the lack of any sporting activity as there was no place to play indoor or outdoor sports. The entertainment room was where we made the most of our free time.