ICFAI Foundation of Higher Education (IFHE) Hyderabad is a renowned deemed-to-be university established by the

ICFAI Group. Formerly known as the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI), it is a not-for-profit organization set up in the year 1984.

It was launched by N.J. Yasaswy, Besant C. Raj and Dr. Prasanna Chandra. The institute started its academic journey with the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) programme in the year 1985. The institute started with the intention of providing specialized and industry-friendly training in finance and accounting.

Under the jurisdiction of ICFAI, there are 11 universities in India. These varsities are respectively located in Hyderabad, Tripura, Dehradun, Himachal Pradesh (Baddi), Jaipur, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Raipur and Sikkim. Other than the one in Hyderabad, the rest of the universities were established through legislative acts of the respective states. In the year 1995, the ICFAI Group started 8 business schools known as the ICFAI Business School (IBS) across various cities of India.

IFHE Hyderabad was accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with Grade A on May 2015. The total area of the campus is 91 acres. The institute has received other accreditations such as memberships from the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the Association of Indian Universities (AIU). There are five colleges under this varsity – ICFAI Business School (IBS), Faculty of Science & Technology (commonly known as ICFAI Tech School or ITS), Faculty of Law (FOL) (commonly known as ICFAI Law School), Distance Education and ICFAI Staff College.

According to university sources, there are a total of 5,021 students studying at the university that includes 10 foreign students. The male-female ratio is 13:12. There are 224 faculty members at the university out of which IBS has 146 faculty members, ITS has 60 faculty members and FOL has 18 faculty members.

Prof. J Mahender Reddy, the Vice Chancellor of IFHE Hyderabad, said, “The vision of the university is to emerge as an institution of excellence known for research, teaching and practice”.  Prof. Reddy added that the strong points of the varsity are case achievements, an excellent PhD programme, publications in A* journals, 100 percent placements and student clubs.

The university emphasizes on research across various disciplines of study. According to the varsity sources, research is promoted through academic seminars, participation in national and international conferences and publication of papers in national and international journals. During the last five years, 1,012 papers have been published by the university stakeholders, out of which 375 research papers have been published in Scopus (Elsevier) Journals. The varsity sources further informed that the average research Impact Factor is 0.471 (SCImago Journal Rank) and the range is 1.00 to 3.77.

IBS Leads the Way

ICFAI Business School (IBS) is one of the most well-known institutes, run by the IFHE. The school is accredited by SAQS (South Asian Quality Standards). The MBA programme of IBS is the most reputed programme of the institute with a good placement record. As per the website of IFHE Hyderabad, the college provides hundred percent case study-based learning.

Prof. S Venkata Seshaiah, the Director of IBS, said, “At IBS, we don’t ask the student to follow a linear pattern of learning. With the technological development in the industry, the students have to be equipped with all the skills to become tomorrow’s leaders.” Prof. Seshaiah added that a student pursuing MBA normally undergo 250 to 300 case studies in his/ her two-year course. Therefore, the student becomes the owner for his or her learning outcome. Moreover at IBS Hyderabad, each batch consists of students from 29 states and seven union territories of India. Each section has a mixed bag of students from Engineering, Arts, Science and Commerce backgrounds so that different thoughts of problem solving could be generated by the group of students while solving a case.

The programmes offered by IBS are Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Master of Business Administration (MBA), Executive MBA Programme (Part-Time), Post Graduate Programme in Analytics, PhD Programme (Full-time), PhD (Part-time) and PhD Programme in Economics. The BBA is a three-year programme, with specializations offered in Finance, Marketing, HRM, IT & Systems and Entrepreneurship. This programme is also clubbed with two internships.

The MBA is a two-year programme with specializations in Marketing, Finance, Human Resource Management, Operations and Information Technology & Systems. There are 1,200 seats available in each batch. At the end of the first year, there is a summer internship programme along with training on soft skills.

With reference to the placement of IBS, Prof. Seshaiah says, “96 percent of the students got placement in the 2017 batch. For the 2018 batch, 75.07 percent of the students have already been placed. The average salary for the students is rupees 7.58 lakhs. The highest salary being offered is rupees 23 lakhs.”

IBS conducts national level entrance test known as IBSAT for admissions to their MBA programme. Arpan Bansal, an aspirant of IBS entrance test – IBSAT 2018, said, “I have appeared for the IBSAT and now I am waiting to get a call for the next round consisting of Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI). IBSAT was a test of two-hours with 150 questions. If I clear the final round, then I would like to take either Finance or Operations as my specialization”.

Another aspirant Sadhanakari Harsha said, “I received communication from IBS that I have cleared the test. They have not shared my score.

Now, I am waiting to appear for the GD and PI. In order to prepare for this round, I joined a coaching institute where I practiced with the help of mock GD and PI. I am looking forward to join IBS Hyderabad, as it is the most reputed college among the rest of the colleges of IBS. Here, after seeing thousands of aspirants, I am a bit nervous about the final results”.

The Executive MBA is a part-time programme which has been designed for the working professionals. The classes are held on Sundays and second Saturdays.

IBS provides academic delivery through the case study method and hence it has the Case Study Research Center, which has won several recognitions. The pedagogy is also designed with guest lectures, seminars and presentations.

The alumni network of ICFAI is a strong organization with members from several reputed organizations. The ICFAI Business School Alumni Federation (IBSAF) is the institute’s internal alumni association. IBSAF facilitates networking among students through alumni reunions, class-meets and other relevant activities. It also helps the alumni network through lateral movement in their career.

ITS Raring to Stamp Its Class

ICFAI Tech School (ITS) school offers B.Tech. programmes in Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. The admission tests accepted for the B.Tech. programmes are the recently conducted ICFAI Tech School Admission Test (ITSAT), Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and State/ National Level Engineering Entrance Tests score.

The school also provides M.Tech. in Manufacturing Systems Engineering in two-year full-time and three-year part-time modes. For admission in the Masters’ programme, the candidate has to qualify the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) or ICFAI Master’s Entrance Exam (IMEE). Faculty of Science & Technology also offers a PhD Programme in Basic Sciences and doctoral programmes in Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics.

Dr. M. Srinivasa Reddy, the Director of the school, said, “Aim of the school is to impart futuristic technical education and infuse high patterns of discipline through its dedicated staff”. Dr. Reddy added that the objective of the school is to make skilled engineers of tomorrow by encouraging the students for research and up-to-date academic curriculum.

According to the university sources, for the academic batch of 2013 – 2017, 87 percent of the B.Tech. graduates have got placements with an average salary of rupees 3.2 lakhs per annum.

Movva Pavani, an Assistant Professor of Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), said, “We are giving internships to the students twice, i.e. at the end of the fourth semester and at the end of the final semester.

We are collaborating with the industries for generating internship opportunities for our students. Some of the places where our students have worked as interns are Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and the likes.” Pavani added that the students from Computer Science and ECE are getting the maximum number of placements.

Murali Krishna, who is pursuing his B.Tech. in ECE and a part of the 2015 – 2019 batch, said, “Other than the internships that provide strong industrial exposure to every student, we also have am Industry Academia conclave every year. This conclave rightly points out the current industrial

requirements for the students graduating every year, and as a result gives us a chance to develop those skills.”

FOL Strives to Offer Specialization Areas in Legal Education

ICFAI Law School, Hyderabad also known as the Faculty of Law (FOL) has been approved by the Bar Council of India to offer five-year full-time Integrated BBA-LLB (Honours) and BA-LLB (Honours) programmes. The students study law in core areas along with additional areas of interest such as Environmental Law, Intellectual Property Rights, E-business, Cyber Law, Economics & Law and the likes.

The Center of Postgraduate Legal Studies offers Master of Laws (LLM) programme in Corporate and Commercial Law and Taxation. The students have to appear for ICFAI Law SchoolAT in order to take admission in the graduation and post graduation courses. The school also offers doctoral and certificate programmes.

The campus has residential facilities along with other amenities such as meeting rooms, lecture halls, cafeteria, library, computer centre, administrative block and laboratories. The campus has its dedicated medical facilities along with counselling services with general practitioners, nurses and counsellors for both the students and the staff. Among the sports and recreational facilities, the institute has a Football and Cricket Ground, a Swimming Pool, a Gymnasium, courts for Badminton, Basketball, Squash and Volleyball and indoor games facilities for chess, caroms, table tennis and the likes.

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Reporting by Amrita Chakraborty
Special Correspondent, Hyderabad

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