The ICFAI (Institute of Chartered Financial Analyst of India) was established in 1984 as a not-for-profit society with the broad objective of empowering citizens through world class quality education by the visionary, N J Yasaswy, with headquarters in Hyderabad.

Making its debut with the launch of an innovative, professional course - CFA in 1985, the ICFAI is today a diversified Educational Group. At present it boasts of presence across 16 states with 11 ICFAI Universities, 9 ICFAI Business Schools (IBS), 7 ICFAI Tech Schools and  9 ICFAI Law Schools.

The ICFAI Group has two strategic Institutional Units-ICFAI Universities and ICFAI Business Schools. In all the programs offered across these units, the emphasis is on academic rigour and differentiated curriculum that bridges the industry – academia gap. With its sustained efforts it has emerged as one of the largest private universities group in India.

Innovation, Research focus, flexible learning, strong case study method and emphasis on top faculty have been the pillars on which the ICFAI Group has been growing strongly in the past three decades. Innovation  now is part of its DNA.

A befitting  example that is a testimony to the culture of innovation at ICFAI is the introduction of Case Study methodology at IBS. The Case Research Center at IBS has become a center of excellence and has won several global awards . The Group has overall won many accolades for its quality of education and forward looking approach in the education field. In this direction The ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education has been recognised as “Category 1 Autonomous Institution. It is also accredited by NAAC with A++ Grade and a score of 3.59/4.

The Beginnings & Take Off:

The CFA Program was a first-of-its-kind in India. However, the big jump for the ICFAI Group came in 1995 with the launch and setting up of a chain of Business Schools (IBS) to offer management studies across India.  It gave the Group a stronger Pan India visibility.

Since its inception, the ICFAI Business School (IBS) has been consistently ranked among the top B-Schools of India. The admissions are a well structured and streamlined process.

The final interview with thousands of students and some parents too is carried out annually at its sprawling main campus in Shankarpalli, about 30 kms from Hyderabad. As a policy, admissions are purely based on merit and there is nothing like capitation fee or management quota.

The placements record has been consistently good and amongst the best in the sector. For the 2023 batch with a record 95% placed, the highest salary package was Rs 21 lakhs and the average salary being Rs 10.66 lakhs.

Almost all the top Indian corporates and multinational companies participate in the campus placement process.

Innovation in Academic & Leadership Building:

The overall focus of the ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE) is on learning rather than instruction. The emphasis is on Technology enabled learning for which it  has developed a unique Learning Management System based on Moodle.

The IBS,  as part of its contemporary curriculum is ushering in a new revolution in the classroom experience within the education industry. The entire platform being developed will provide an interactive learning experience assimilated by a breathtaking online experience. Technology also known as, Quick Force helps with cloud computing, seamless learning and creating amazing student experience. It makes learning easy,   interactive and allows students to be in touch with the classroom at any time by posting doubts, asking questions, interacting with peers, downloading coursework, answering question papers and allowing the professor to play a participatory role.

Quick Force also offers students in-depth learning. All the interactions can be archived and revisited any number of times. This application is one of the best innovations in the education industry and uniquely brought into force by IBS.  

  In addition, the institute is engaged in important areas of research covering environmental sustainability, agricultural economics, health policy, financial economics, banking, intellectual property rights etc. There have been good quality publications in these areas. It has its own publications division and brings out Journals.

IFHE strives to transform the students into ‘DOERS’ and shape them into leaders of tomorrow’s businesses. The structure of the Program, the corresponding soft-skills training and the experience of handling events and responsibility brings out the leader in the student. The students are encouraged to participate in a multitude of  extracurricular activities so that they come out as well- rounded individuals. The alumni of ICFAI Group are working in renowned companies world-wide. Collectively, ICFAI Group alumni contribute significantly to the growth story of India.

The Founder

Late N.J. Yasaswy, the founder of the ICFAI Group of Educational Institutions was a pioneer in promoting higher education in the Private Sector. He conceptualized, developed and built competitive and top graded Business schools in India apart from creating 11 Universities in the developing states of India (including in the North East) single-handedly.

He wanted to nurture and groom young students who had the will to learn but were unable to gain entry into the premier educational institutes for a variety of reasons. He built temples of learning offering value based education, industry-focused curriculum and employable skills. His entire life was devoted to building excellence in higher education by taking the very best practices and ideas from every corner of the globe. His aim was to deliver unmatched value to the student community by promoting institutions that espoused great values, ethics, morals and scruples. He was a man of prodigious talent and clearly way ahead of his peers. His vision will continue to guide the ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education for generations to come.

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“The ICFAI took up the pandemic related issues as challenges and devised a virtual mode of teaching, created sound infrastructure to deliver online classes, course material and expertise which is a good back up to the real classroom and on campus learning”, says the Vice Chancellor, Prof L S Ganesh.

“Consolidation is the way forward in the increasingly competitive higher education sector in the near future for ICFAI. We see lots of challenges and opportunities emerging as the sector sees more private and foreign players entering”, says Prof Ganesh, who has just completed a year in office. The ICFAI is concentrating on building collaborations with industry and academia both in India and abroad. A campus abroad is also in the pipeline. The Schools of Architecture, Engineering and Law will get more attention so that they move up the national ratings and attract more students. For ICFAI attracting good teaching faculty has not been an issue so far, explained the Vice Chancellor.”

Prof. (Dr.) L S Ganesh,

Vice Chancellor,

The ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education,

Hyderabad

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Case Study Makes Waves Globally

The IBS Case Research Center (IBS-CRC) was born out of a vision to build one of the world’s top case development centers in India. Set up in the year 2000, the Center has established itself as one of the top in the world, both in terms of number of cases developed and the usage by business schools.

As of July 2023, IBS-CRC has developed more than 7,000 cases of which 4,000 are in digital flipbook format. Around 40% of the cases cover Indian business scenarios while the remaining cater to global business. IBS-CRC cases are used by more than 900 B-schools from over 90 countries.  

Some of the leading Business Schools that use the cases are IE Business School (Spain), Imperial College London, HEC Montreal, HEC Paris, INSEAD (France), London Business School, London School of Economics & Political Science, SDA Bocconi (Italy), Singapore Management University, and China Europe International Business School (CEIBS, China). In India, top schools such as IIMs, ISB, SP Jain, and Symbiosis, among others, use IBS-CRC case studies. Till 2023, 267 IBS-CRC case studies have been published in leading international textbooks.

The faculty at IBS Hyderabad play a key role in developing the case studies, and more importantly, the teaching notes.  

Not content with confining itself to developing case studies, IBS-CRC also involves itself in conducting workshops/FDPs/MDPs. Beneficiaries include organizations such as the National Academy of Defence Production, IIM Ranchi, VIT Vellore, Banasthali Vidyapith, NI-MSME, SBI etc. Internationally, IBS-CRC has been involved as facilitator/ chair/organizer in conducting professional development workshops (PDW) at the prestigious AOM Annual Meetings in Boston, Philadelphia, Orlando, Anaheim, Vancouver, Atlanta, and Chicago.

For the work it has been doing, several awards have come IBS-CRC’s way. So far it has won more than 150 national and international awards and prizes from institutions such as the Academy of Management (AOM), Association of MBAs (AMBA), European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), Emerald Group Publishing, University of Michigan’s WDI Publishing, North American Case Research Association, The Case Centre UK, John Molson School of Business (University of Concordia, Canada), AESE Business School (Portugal), Project Management Institute (USA), Syracuse University (USA), USASBE - Baylor (USA), CEIBS (China), All India Management Association (India), K J Somaiya Institute of Management (India) and Aligarh Muslim University (India).

The IBS-CRC has published many award-winning cases addressing sustainable development goals (SDGs). Many of its cases have been translated into languages such as Spanish, Russian, French, German, Chinese, Serbian, and Portuguese.

Interestingly,  seven of the IBS-CRC authors feature in The Case Centre’s Top 50 Bestselling Case Authors’ List for 2021-22. This is next only to Harvard Business School with nine authors. Among the Top 10 bestselling authors in the world, three are from IBS-CRC. Other authors in the Top 50 list include professors from Harvard, INSEAD, IMD, Stanford, etc

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