The Institute of Public Enterprise (IPE), Hyderabad is stepping into its Diamond Jubilee year with confidence and strength of consistently being counted among the top B Schools in India.
Founded in 1964 in a small facility in the Osmania University, the IPE today has an ultra-modern campus with comfortable and functional academic, sports, extra-curricular and hostel facilities spread over 22 acres in the outskirts of Hyderabad on Karimnagar Highway.
The IPE is flanked by the Shamirpet lake on one side and a reserve forest on the other, making the campus beautiful. It also has the NALSAR (National Law University) in the neighbourhood and the Genome Valley close by.
A unique feature of the IPE is that it comes under the aegis of the ICSSR (Indian Council of Social Sciences Research), MoE and the Government of India. It was started to meet the requirements of public sector enterprises in terms of research, training and consultancy. The Institute started part time MBA (PE) in 1981 to serve officers of the public sector and industry who wanted to upgrade their academic qualifications while working.
IPE has not just met the basic mandate but over the decades transformed into a full fledged B School with high ranking under the NIRF is a testimony to the culture of change, innovation and performance of the students and faculty. It is among the top 3 in Telangana State, top 13 in South India and has an all India NIRF ranking in the top 125 B Schools.
The institute offers a range of AICTE – approved PGDM Programmes that are equivalent to MBA: The main ones are the following
PGDM – Post Graduate Diploma in Management
PGDM – Banking & Financial Services
PGDM – International Business
PGDM – Marketing Management
PGDM – Human Resource Management
The total intake into these Programmes annually is 555. At any time of the year, the campus strength will be 1100 students in the two year PG programmes. The IPE has a faculty strength of 56, full time. 95% of them are PhDs and most of them experienced in their fields of specialisation which gives a distinct edge over many of the B Schools, says Prof S Sreenivasa Murthy, the Director.
The Steady Growth & Recognition:
During the past 59 years of its existence, the IPE has trained many senior government officers through short-duration Management Development Programs (MDPs). It has conducted nearly 1300 programmes training around 46000 practicing managers in various fields.
In addition the IPE has been undertaking research, training and consultancy projects for the Union Ministries, State Governments and PSUs. The ICSSR has recognised it as a Centre of Excellence. The Institute has CoEs in Corporate Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Centre for Sustainability and Development (CSD), these centres expertise translates into advantage in bagging lucrative and prestigious projects and consultancy from the Government Public sector and the Industry.
One recent example is the IPE being selected among the three Indian Institutions to do a capacity building project for the tourism sector by the European Union (EU). The EU funded project is ongoing now.
Modernisation in New Campus:
IPE Management build a modern campus in 2014 in the outskirts of Hyderabad. Within a few years, the campus has come alive with spacious, modern buildings, high-quality IT facilities and softwares, and well-equipped AC rooms in hostels separately for boys and girls. The well equipped and tranquil academic environment is welcoming to students, research scholars, and faculty. IPE is home to an academic and administrative building, a modern library, an auditorium, a food court, indoor stadium, a variety of sports facilities etc. The Knowledge Centre on campus boasts of 5,000 journals and 40,000 books.
Right from the beginning research, publications and a quality centric approach to teaching have been the pillars on which the Institute has been focussing. It is a matter of pride that the IPE is able to bring out 7 research journals of quarterly and half yearly periodicity now. The faculty are involved in publication of books and articles in Scopus ABDC indexed journals. The faculty are provided incentives for their publications.
Programmes, Placements and Alumni Network:
The Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) programmes at IPE are designed to have an impact on multiple stakeholders with varying expectations at the local, regional, national, and global levels.
Aside from academic, intellectual, and financial benefits, IPE’s PGDM programmes are designed to impact societal, business, and regional eco-system activities too says the Director.
The Institute has more than 12 student clubs and one club for each functional domain such as Marketing, Finance, HR, Operations, etc. In line with the Startup India, Entrepreneurship Development programmes of the Government of India, the students are encouraged to organise an annual entrepreneurial event called Startupedia to nurture their innovative ideas. Every week, there is a guest speaker from the Industry who will deal with various aspects of the corporate world requirements and challenges.
Another interesting feature of the IPE is the diversity in both students and faculty. The students represent different parts of India. The Institute offers excellent scholarships for deserving students from many different backgrounds. There is a separate merit scholarship criteria for students of SC/ST/OBC backgrounds and highly talented students in Sports, Arts, etc. There are also scholarships for students from designated states such as North-eastern States, J&K and Ladakh.
Board of Governors include renowned Policymakers, Industry Leaders, Academicians and Start-up Promoters and BoG is headed by Shri K Madhava Rao, IAS (Retd), Former Chief Secretary and Election Commissioner, Govt of Andhra Pradesh. The stakeholders, recruiters and Alumni are being involved in curriculum development and from admission to teaching. In short at all stages of the academic cycle. This ensures that the students get the best and the industry gets well trained management graduates as per their requirements.
This approach has been showing positive results as indicated by the performance of the students and alumni. The record in placements is another indicator. In the latest 2021-23 batch, 95% of the students have got campus placements. While remaining joined their family businesses. The highest CTC package was Rs 24.75 lakh and the average salary was Rs 7.5 lakhs. Incidentally the entire cost of the programme (tuition fee) is Rs 8 lakhs which indicates providing an excellent RoI to the students. More than 100+ recruiters visit the campus every year which includes Top-tier corporate and consulting firms resulting in multiple offers and high CTC’s for students.
The Institute has a strong alumni network which helps in the placements and internships. Started with the first batch of management in 1995, the network is growing from strength to strength.
It is important for students aiming for a successful career to be able to recognize a reliable institution. That’s where IPE makes the difference. It strives to provide management education that is a step above the rest with a quality centric approach.
The IPE is looking ahead to further improve facilities on campus and add variety of PGDM programmes such as PGDM Business Analytics and Data Science in the near future. The final goal is to provide high quality education at affordable fee, says the Director.
Prof S Sreenivasa Murthy assumed charge as the Director of the IPE in February 2022. Being one of the senior most faculty with over three decades experience and conversant with the growth of the Institute, he provided an insight into the growth and challenges faced in the journey of IPE in a freewheeling interview. Excerpts
What sets IPE apart from other B Schools in terms of curriculum and teaching methodology?
Murthy: The teaching pedagogy consists of project work, case studies, simulations, excel based exercises, presentations in addition to the regular classroom lectures. The objective is to make the student industry ready by the time they complete their PGDM. The curriculum is tailored to industry needs. In the curriculum development the industry experts, stake holders & recruiters are involved on a regular basis. They are also involved in all stages of academic cycle. In addition they also interact with the students to give a real life picture of the corporate and work environment and challenges.
How does the Institute prepare students for the real world management challenges, industry trends and placement?
Murthy: We follow a Mentorship Model from day one, 10-12 students are attached to a faculty member. The students SWOT analysis is done periodically. The mentor will shape the students development through the two year programme in a systematic way.
The students have to undergo a mandatory two months intensive internship programme with the industry. They are exposed to lectures by industry experts on business communication, aptitude, personality development and current Industry trends on a regular basis. Placement procedure is also a well organised structure, which has been delivering very good outcomes to the students. For example in the latest 2021-23 batch around 100 students were absorbed by M/S Deloitte.
Entrepreneurship, Startup and leadership skills have become critical in today’s world. How are you addressing these challenges?
Murthy: Our Institute has been very conscious of importance of entrepreneurship right from the beginning. Keeping this in mind the institute offers core & elective courses on entrepreneurship. The institute has an entrepreneurship cell which organises guest lecture and workshops from entrepreneurs on regular basis.
For developing leadership skills, the institute has allocated one hour exclusively everyday for student club activities that helps them to hone leadership qualities. The annual Flagship Management Fest Sanskriti is exclusively conceptualized, designed, planned and executed by the students themselves which has been organised since 1997. Another initiative called Samithi is an event organised in every domain such as Marketing, Finance, HR, Operations, etc. to provide an opportunity to student to interact with industry leaders. Students are also encouraged to come up with ideas for startups and an Entrepreneurship Cell encourages them in all possible ways.
Is getting good faculty an issue and how the Institute ensures a conducive climate for them to play the crucial role in teaching and research?
Murthy: The Institute is focussed on imparting research based, quality management education to the students. Hence, the emphasis on having highly qualified faculty with an aptitude for research, consultancy and training has been our priority. The Institute can boast of 56 full time faculty with almost all having a doctorate in their fields of specialisation.
We encourage faculty to be active in 4 fields – Teaching, Research, Consultancy and Training. They are provided incentives for their research publications. Faculty are encouraged to take up training and consultancy assignments which help faculty to bring the consultancy experience to the classroom in the form of case studies. There is good diversity among faculty in terms of region and gender. This is done at the selection stage itself. The faculty are encouraged to attend research conferences in India and abroad. They are also encouraged to take active part in student as well as institution development. This ensures a conducive environment for both the students and faculty.
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