Paradigm shift

B-SCHOOL: Goa Institute of Management is in revamp mode to face competition and enhance its image.

From increasing its capacity to giving the institute a complete image makeover, work at the Goa Institute of Management (GIM) is in full swing.

The classrooms are being modernised and the whole campus will shortly be Wi-fi-enabled. GIM has allocated Rs 2 crore towards this end.

The institute had a good start this year with placement packages being 60 per cent higher that last year. It now needs to accommodate more students for full-time MBA programmes as well as its other courses.

While the management programme can currently accomodate 124 students, the institute is looking at increasing the strength to 240.

To give its students a further edge, the institute has also tied up with international institutes in Germany, Portugal and Belgium to facilitate exchange programmes for both the faculty and students beginning this year. Peter

F X D'Lima, director, GIM, points out that these exchange prorammes will ensure globalisation of education which will be beneficial to GIM as well as its international counterparts.

GIM is also planning to hire a public relations agency to get the institute more visibility. The alumni network will also be used extensively to promote the institute.

D'Lima says, "Since we don't have a lot of funds, we had to choose whether we should look at advertising the institute or improve the infrastructure. Our board has chosen to raise the level of infrastructure of the institute, but we will definitely be focussing on the image management of the institute with a lot more detail that we have done in the past."

That apart, the institute will be introducing short-duration management development programmes (MDP). These would include courses in financial, marketing, operations management, materials management, HRD, industrial relations and decision sciences. The duration of the courses will vary from two to five days.

To accommodate resident MDP delegates, the institute has acquired a a seven-acre land which will be converted into a full fledged hostel for the delegates as well as for the management programme students.

The institute will also be launching a new course for Goa Government civil servants to train them on handling files as well as decision making on government norms and procedures. Health management, environment and bio-technology are also areas that GIM will be shortly be catering to.