Students' Corner

Dear Students,

LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think increased academic and gender diversity in classrooms would help better learning at B-schools?

BEST RESPONSE

Diversity in terms of both academic and gender is the base to enhance the learning experience for students. A lack of diversity might create ethnocentricity in the surrounding environment. Diversity of any means thus help to bridge the difference we have of others and we learn to respect each and every one, despite their culture, cast, religion and we understand that each one is different. The goals of the students in any institution may defer but diversity will help them to foster innovation, challenge the stereotyped perception and develop better understanding of surroundings and moreover it will keep them united.

- Jignesh Trivedi, School of Petroleum Management, PDPU, Gandhinagar.

OTHER RESPONSES

One of many reason why Ivy-League collages rank always top is academic and gender diversity in classrooms. The diversity help students in peer learning, understanding cross-cultural issues, learning about new geography, being gender sensitive at work place, being tolerant of different views etc. Besides, Now Management has gone global and major companies are MNCs therefore there exist greater need for diverse classroom as now problems of companies are of mixed nature viz. global, local, local-global, global-local, etc.
- Nilaya Mitash Shanker, IIT Roorkee.

An increased diversity in classrooms in B-schools will definitely improve learning of students.  A gender, academic and cultural diversity is a paramount thing for a classroom as student from various backgrounds will have different ideas and viewpoint to a problem which will provide multiple perspective to a problem. Secondly, while working in a group with diverse peer culture students will learn to respect the individual differences which will make them incisive.

- Piyush, PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh.

Increased academic diversity is definitely welcome as it adds to the different perspectives among the views of students. As much of the learning at B-schools is interactive, it facilitates sharing of knowledge among the students with different educational backgrounds. This inculcates efficiency in accomplishing live projects which need a wider knowledge base. Effectiveness coupled with efficiency can be achieved through increased academic diversity. As for the gender diversity, a better learning at B-schools can be achieved irrespective of the gender ratio as far as the curriculum is well equipped with the necessary disciplines and a practical approach is ensured.

- YVS Karthik, NIPER, Mohali.

B–school is a platform where one can stand along with others, to gather knowledge on diversified topics. It's not necessary that a productive discussion can only take place when all the participants of the discussion would have a detailed knowledge on the topic.  It can also take place even when a few group members have a good knowledge on the given topic. Gender diversity helps one to understand the organizational behavior, as this diversity creates an environment in the classroom, which could help one to groom one’s own behavior with the help of opposite gender’s behavior and views.”
- Himanshu Khatri, School of Petroleum Management, PDPU, Gandhinagar.

In B-Schools students are taught about the understanding of different type of behavior of different type of people. Public relation, people skill and various other things are taught to maintain and grow their business to various diversified class of people. So, academic and gender diversity in classrooms helps to a great extent to understand, communicate, learn various skills and knowledge among themselves which helps in practical life. Any B-Schools having great academic and gender diversity then it has a great chance to increase their learning that’s why companies look for such type of colleges for their recruitment process.

- Sumit Sourav, Regional College of Management, Bhubaneswar.

Education is something not limited to studying, learning or application of skills. An individual learns throughout his life from the surrounding environment which thereby forms a major role in decision making. In which case, diversity at the level of B-schools in terms of academics and gender would add an absolutely new dimension to the quality of education. It would boost out of the box thinking thus in a way yielding much more innovative outcomes. Such a beautiful measure would simply enhance the scope for healthy classroom discussion and an improved learning alongside.

- Shivam Chhabra, Integral University, Lucknow.

Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Do you think IIMs offer better return on investments than the Ivy League?

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