Orissa's B-school plans campus in Dubai

Orissa's oldest management college, Regional College of Management (RCM) is planning an overseas campus at Dubai. The campus, in all likelihood, would be set up by 2009 with an investment of Rs 10 crore.

Speaking to Business Standard Prabir Pal, founder director, RCM, said, all preparations are underway to set up the Dubai campus. RCM also planned a campus at Mauritius, but due to prohibitory prices of land it has kept the plan in abeyance.

"Setting up of the Dubai campus is in an advanced stage of negotiation. We are confident it would fructify shortly", he added.

Pal was speaking on the sidelines of an International Conference on Wireless Technology arranged by RCM.

For setting up the Dubai campus, RCM authorities have already started teaching Arabic to students at the institute's School of Languages. About 35-40 students are currently taking training in Arabic language to suit the requirements of Dubai.

RCM, meanwhile, has also started tying up with different Dubai-based firms for finding placements for students.

"Within the next two years we would comfortably be able to manage high placements in Dubai from our College," says Pal. These are mostly in the areas of retail management.

Alongside, RCM is planning to set up two management colleges at Jamshedpur and Delhi. This would take up an investment of Rs 10 crore. Pal said that the college already has an annual fund reserve of over Rs 5 crore. We would utilise the fund for the new colleges and the remaining would be sourced  through bank loans.

RCM currently imparts course in management, tourism and computer science. As part of its tourism programme, RCM has also undertaken survey of Orissa's 352 blocks. This was done to carve out the tourist
potential in the different blocks of the state.

The Orissa government is actively supporting the endeavour. " We want to put Orissa high up on the global tourist map and hence the exercise has been undertaken by us", Pad added.

In Master of Computer Application (MCA) , RCM has achieved a 100% placement, with almost 85% of its students placed in top IT companies of Bangalore.