'We will double our spend on research this year'

Q&A: Uday Salunkhe, Director, Welingkar Institute of Management

B-schools are now looking at entrepreneurship channels for their students on the back of the economic slowdown. However, Uday Salunkhe, Director, Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research says there is more to entrepreneurship. In an interview with KIRTIKA SUNEJA, he speaks about the placement scenario and elaborates on innovation helps entrepreneurship.

How important is innovation for students at this point of time?
Innovative thinking is the key for all students and we are embedding it in them by encouraging them to take up entrepreneurship. For this, we invited venture capitalists to sponsor students’ projects that add value to practical learning.

 

We will also support them in their projects. In our current batch, around 10 per cent students have opted for entrepreneurship. This is not the first time that we are doing this. Six months back, we did a similar exercise but this time we are focusing only on high-level projects.

Does it mean that research is also being encouraged?
Absolutely. This year not only will our research spending double to Rs 50 lakh, but we also plan to invite more guest faculty in specialised areas of research like financial services.

How would having alliances help in this research?
We have a model in mind wherein we will collaborate with foreign universities by sharing case studies with them and through student and faculty exchange programmes. We have invited professors from foreign universities to offer guest lectures on topics like database management and CRM. Also, we have tie-ups with Japanese universities in the product innovation space.. 

Will there be any increase in the fee because of these research activities?
Research activities in centres of excellence will require investments. Keeping these futuristic activities in mind, we did present a proposal to the Maharashtra government to raise the fee to Rs 4.92 lakh. Currently, the fee stands at Rs 2.5 lakh.   

How have the placements been this year?
We have been able to place around 83 per cent of our students and the highest salary this year has been Rs 11.2 lakh while the average package has been Rs 5 lakh. The average is down from Rs 7.25 lakh last year. So, placements have been pretty healthy keeping in mind the economic conditions..

How difficult will it be to place students in future?
There are new challenges but now we need to include heterogenous areas like social sciences and entrepreneurship in business education. We ourselves have introduced a new course in agri-business and role marketing that will start from July ths year. Healthcare is another area where we plan to introduce programmes.