Jagannath Community College B.H.M. Review By Jamshed Ali

Since my father used to run a restaurant and helping him out made me fall in love with cooking and other aspects of running a Quick Service Restaurant. I had no choice but to do hotel management and IHM, IIHM, and JIMS Rohini were the option that I explored. IHM and IIHM had too much competition while JIMS had more luxury as their kitchen is the most advanced one and even the hospitality that they teach is far better than those two. JIMS don’t believe in squeezing their students as whatever reasons may come, the college was always up to new things. I was staggered by the quality of education and labs that JIMS has in place. We served as the hospitality partner of the college because if any guests arrived at the college, it was our department students who were asked to lead. If anyone is fragile during any such events, he/she was severely warned. One can’t go on the backfoot far too soon at JIMS because our heads were always in front.

Students here had to fight for their places and that is how competitive the academics were. JIMS is a powerhouse of education at least for Hotel Management as there were as many as 6 specialized labs for our department. From a specialized kitchen to a quantity training kitchen, we had to go through all the drills even if cooking wasn’t our area. Confectionary, whose market has grown leaps and bounds, was also a part of our curriculum as the bakery at JIMS was small but good enough to take care of over 100 students of our department. Since I was training in the service business, our lab had a virtual restaurant set-up and we were trained there more than in the classes. In a service business, the most important thing is communication and therefore we were made well-versed with our communication skills at JIMS.

Faculties here taught us many skills in effectively managing many responsibilities that hotel management students are bound with. From concierge services to managing reception, we were taught all by our faculties. The other faculties made us well versed in bar functions, restaurant management, marketing, and admin department. So, for all the concepts that we had in our course, specialized faculties were brought in and the Hotel Management course looked ever so appealing for studies at JIMS. I will congratulate the management for bringing in some of the best people as along with degrees and expertise the faculties also had a lot of work experience in the same field behind their back.

At JIMS, students may not be placed in 5-Star hotels but at least 8–10 students from my batch were placed in top restaurants in the city. We did our internships at the 5-star hotels of the city but most students were placed in 3-star hotels in the city like IBIS, Aerocity, Red Fox at Delhi Airport, Ginger Hotel, and Bloomrooms near New Delhi Railway Station among others. The initial salary offered to Hotel Management students is low as most hotel chains in India aren’t that profitable. Hotels look glamorous but it’s the restaurants that mint more money than those hotels, at least in Delhi. I, therefore, chose to work at Burger King as they were also one of the recruiters and I needed some experience before I could join my dad’s restaurant. The placements overall were excellent as over 80% of the students were placed through campus.

JIMS has quite a few branches in Delhi but doesn’t have a hostel. Students were mostly from Delhi and therefore having an off-campus hostel may have been a hustle therefore the college has left the students to find PGs or flats around the college as they are available in abundance.

The college is small but one of the most attractive campuses in Delhi. All the labs were underground as apart from Bakery all our labs were in the basement and classes were on the second floor. Just five classrooms were allotted for Hotel Management Department as the students were relatively lesser than that of BCA or BBA. The classrooms were great and the labs were just perfect. The ground next to the college was never used for playing sports but more for events such as freshers, farewell, departmental fests, and annual fests were all held at that ground. Area wise one can say it was small but facilities wise I felt it was good enough.

Hotel Management and Media students grabbed the most attention as our quantity kitchen always had some dishes getting prepared for the rest of the students, faculties, and non-teaching staff. It was also our litmus test as students with their expertise were asked to do their jobs. We, therefore, couldn’t even enjoy the annual fest but our departmental fest in which we had all the things to do apart from kitchen or service was one of the grandest events of the college.