Regional College of Management to roll out sector-specific courses

City-based Regional College of Management (RCM), one of the leading B-schools in eastern India, is planning to roll out a host of sector specific and industry oriented management programmes from the next academic session.

Among the different programmes scheduled to be introduced by RCM from the 2009-10 academic session include Post Graduate Diploma programmes in retail management, financial services marketing and international business. The B-school has also lined up two-year, full-time MBA programmes in Steel and Mines management and Tourism management which are to be offered from the 2009-10 session.

Talking to Business Standard, Prabir Pal, director of RCM said, “We are in the process of selecting the ideal industry partner for our proposed sector specific management courses. The institute is in advanced stage of negotiations with a leading international tour operator for the MBA course in tourism management and it has agreed to design the curriculum and also absorb all the students enrolled in the programme.”

The institute is also in talks with Pantaloon Retail and ICICI Bank for possible collaborations for the proposed programmes in retail management and financial services marketing respectively. The proposed courses in retail management, financial services marketing and international business will have an intake of 60 seats each and each of these programmes will be of eighteen months duration, which includes one year of academic input and the balance six months of industry exposure.

The thrust of our proposed course in financial services marketing will be on rural banking, housing loans and mutual funds and the course will equip students with strategies for effective marketing of these financial products, Pal added. On the other hand, the MBA programmes in Steel and Mines Management as well as Tourism Management will be of two years duration and will be initiated with an intake of 30 seats each. For the MBA programme in Steel and Mines management, RCM has already approached steel majors like Arcelor Mittal, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel for preparing the course content and only engineering graduates will be eligible for this course.

Meanwhile, the B-school has applied to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to raise its intake for its conventional MBA programme from 180 to 240. RCM which is presently affiliated to the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) expects to be conferred the status of an autonomous college from the University Grants Commission (UGC) by the end of this month.