ICFAI plans clutch of new courses

The Hyderbad-based ICFAI group, which runs a clutch of 11 universities around the country — five of them in the north-east region — and nine business schools, is bristling with plans to widen its academic base this year.

Its Hyderabad campus already has in place a five-year integrated BBA–LLB (Hons) degree programme and it plans to unveil more such integrated courses. “Today, many parents and students want to play safe with their options; integrated programmes for five years are unique and also shortens the time for a dual degree,” explains Sudhakar Rao, Director, Branding, of the ICFAI group, in a recent interview.

The group, which at any given time, has at least 10,000 students in its institutions around the country, and a lakh of students enrolled in its distance learning programmes, intends to open its courses for students from the SAARC region. It is also marketing its programmes in Dubai, as well as in China, where it will take part in an educational fair at Chongqing this month-end. “We intend to aggressively internationalise our courses this year. Many Chinese students want to pursue an engineering course in India,” says Rao.

ICFAI University has been running part-time courses for executives in Sri Lanka since 2004 in a city campus, says Rao. While Sri Lanka serves as a magnet for students from the Maldives, ICFAI will also look to attract Sri Lankan students to its Hyderabad campus.

The business slowdown last year did not really impact IBS (ICFAI Business School), explains Rao, as the B-school has its own pipeline of recruiters who return to the campus every year. “We have over 39,000 alumni now, since we started 17 years ago, and many are in positions of recruiters and influencers or thriving entrepreneurs,” he explains. The intake of first-year MBA students at its sylvan 100-acre ICFAI University campus, 40 kms from Hyderabad, was 1,200 students this year. Put together across the first- and second-year students, there are almost 2,500 students who are pursuing an MBA degree in the campus. In addition there are around 500 BBA students.

Rao explains the importance of credibility and reputation. “We first create the facilities, and then recruit faculty and then take the students. Most of the up and coming schools do the reverse. If you have the students, then they take on faculty. And then build the infrastructure; so you are always falling short.” Asked what are the emerging/niche areas for management education in India and what new courses can emerge, Rao says “media/ communication and design school are big opportunities.”