AP Goyal Shimla University BBA Review By Vaibhav Sharma

APG Shimla University is great and has definitely the best atmosphere to study. One can’t argue with the placements because barring St. Bede's, no other colleges in Shimla have good placements. Call it unfortunate but students here mostly go for higher studies abroad or to the other parts of India. However, it’s not like that placements are totally out of equation as students were placed though not with a great package or something but were good to kick start their career. The university facilities and all were great but the faculties were the only problem. I mean not all but certainly some of them. All in all, AP Goyal Shimla University and studies make a dynamic partnership. I don’t want to go back much because the university is still just a decade old but has provided some dream placements to its students.

Academic wise the college never looked due because they delivered on all cylinders. What all things we had in our mind related to business studies, we were taught them all. Thus, the course was totally relevant and calling it industry ready may be a bit more but still all questions related to subjects and topics were quite clear. I have seen some colleges in India teach the things which are not required but we weren’t taught any such things because the course itself was so vast that getting it done in itself was giving pat on the back to ourselves. Scoring here is quite tough because if one thinks they can get some free lunches in internals then I am sorry my friends that’s not happening at all. What happens here is students are judged a bit on their behaviour and attendance but rest all depends on how they have performed in the exams.

I don’t understand the reason why some faculties from foreign universities were hired because their accent and teaching ways were beyond me at least. It’s like having a foreign coach for a U-19 team who will keep explaining but the boys will hardly understand anything. I have always believed that our country has enough talent and teachers from India today are teaching in universities abroad so I think they should end this chapter by bringing some faculties from the top universities of India. The Indian faculties at the campus were great as we could communicate with them better and could also discuss other problems.

The T&P department approached each student individually and the ones they felt could crack the interviews were assisted. Luckily, I was on their list and they spent enough time on me to make me impress the recruiters. Shimla is still undercooked in various departments but companies have started coming and Bhaddi being a hub of many MNCs, the companies were more than happy to take the local students. Companies like P&G, HUL, Nestle, Airtel, Taj Hotels were at the campus for recruitment. They wanted BBA students in numbers but they didn’t want to pay more and therefore around 60% of the students were offered jobs in the range of 20-25k. I was offered one in Bhaddi for the same amount and after giving it a thought for a day, I decided to take up the job.

The university has both boys and girls hostels inside the campus. Being a localite, I couldn’t qualify for staying at the hostel but outsiders used to stay there. The problem is that college is quite far from the main city and if by chance we missed the university bus, we had to travel two miles walking as the nearest bus stop was that far. So, staying at the hostels for those who qualify to stay there must stay there because the hostels of the university were good.

The campus is huge as the campus is spread over 42 acres and is surrounded by mountains and greenery all around. There were around 30 buildings at the campus as each department had their own building and then the campus had a nursing home. An ambulance was available at the campus 24*7. There were heaters in the classrooms as winters of Shimla is not an unknown territory for anyone. The campus reception has flags of various countries carved on their walls as the university has tie-ups with many foreign universities, some of the professors or chancellors from there used to visit our campus. The infrastructure is definitely the strong foothold of the university.

The distance between my home and campus was so high that I had to rely on university bus service. Whenever I thought of getting involved in some activities at the university, I missed the bus and then had to hitchhike to my home. I learned the art of hitch hiking because of that but it’s the hostellers who rule at the college parties and events as they stay inside the campus.