Cover Story: Chitkara Business School – Imparting quality Management Education

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In the year 1998, Dr. Ashok K Chitkara and Dr. Madhu Chitkara, with the vision to create a globally recognized organization, promoting academic excellence through interdisciplinary applied research, and to expand realms of knowledge through innovation, founded the Chitkara Educational Trust. Chitkara Educational Trust eventually started many institutes under its umbrella, in almost every field of education. Chitkara Business School was one such initiative by the trust towards bringing a change in the field of Management and Business studies.

Chitkara B-school is already one of the fastest-growing b-schools and is among the top 75 management institutions of the country. To be in the list of top b-schools in the b-school industry, Chitkara trust had to emphasize on focused academic approach, strong industry partnerships, provide excellent campus placements, introduce student-centered education and most importantly have an outstanding faculty, enabling students the best of the teaching and knowledge.

Career Transformation begins at Chitkara B-School

Chitkara B-school was established in 2008 with an MBA program in Marketing & Finance initially and now, with an ever-growing demand for competitive programs and courses, today the B-School encompasses 10 different specializations in the new-age technologies like Healthcare Management, Healthcare IT, Business Analytics and Pharmaceutical Management.

The programs at Chitkara are unique, flexible and latest in terms of their structure and contents, and are jointly run, and coached by academia and top industry professionals. The curriculum is both dynamic as well as continuously evolving and the students are exposed to real-life business scenarios, which make them, get equipped with the right skill sets to create and execute business strategies that can add value to their employer, and the community at large. Accomplished faculties with experience in diverse fields bring expertise and experience into the classroom so that the students can grasp knowledge and learn through an industrial point of view. The students are encouraged to take up integrated project works, international exchange programs, internships and a diverse range of electives. Theory and its applications are given equal attention and importance, to equip the students with knowledge skills, soft people skills, and ‘heart’ skills.

Teachers and the Teaching

Chitkara B-School being one of the most sort after B-schools in India, faculty is their main strength. The B-school believes strongly in grooming their faculty regularly in research and practice. The faculty takes part in quality research through paper writing, project work, conference presentations, and publications. The teachers are encouraged to visit the best B-schools of India and abroad for gaining experience in the best practices of teaching, in-addition they take up teaching assignments with Universities in Germany, France and many other countries.

Chitkara as a brand is a synonym of Quality Education”, quoted Dr. MadhuChitkara, the VC of the Universityand according to her, the “faculty at Chitkara is their pride”. With the teachers and the faculty trained in up-to-date methodologies of teaching, teaching at Chitkara, is taken out of the classroom and placed in the real business world to create tangible and meaningful learning outcomes. The faculty works closely with the industry to design the most relevant and updated course curricula, enabling the graduates at Chitkara to transition into professionals with rewarding careers.

Creating up-to-date skilled managers

In a time where the business environment is so very dynamic and there is a need for managers to adapt to day-to-day changes, Chitkara B-School keeps it very simple, letting changes and the changing trends become the curriculum. Coaches from the industry, who are either bringing those changes or implementing them, help in teaching the students the latest of all the trends and methods, incorporating all of the latest technologies in the curriculum and in their teaching. Corporate weekends enable the would-be managers with knowledge of the latest happenings of the outside world.

Technicality, Flexibility, Multi-tasking ability, Mobility, Analytical knowledge and positive attitude are some of the qualities a would-be manager requires at a global level market. Keeping all of these qualities in mind, “Programs atChitkaraareflexible, latest, technology oriented, full of projects and case based”, stated Dr. Madhu, the VC of the University. She also added to this topic saying – “National and International level internships, semester exchange programs, social projects, and activities are a norm at Chitkara B-School”.

In addition, participating in such activities, enable the future managers/entrepreneurs to be well equipped with the changes in the latest trends of the market and be well abled in handling any further changes to this ever-changing dynamic world.

Managers? What about Entrepreneurs? 

Secondary or alternate outcome of pursuing management studies is to become an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is an art, which consists of a skill set not everyone can master. At Chitkara, Entrepreneurship is given equal importance and consideration, and as a result, Centre of Entrepreneurship Education Development (CEED) was established. At CEED, the mission is to increase the ecosystem’s productivity by simplifying the task of connecting people with the right opportunities.“Initially, value is created within the ecosystem, and then that value is shared with our ecosystem partners, mentors, investors, and startups,” stated Dr. Madhu, ecstatically. With a state-of-the-art incubation space of over 15,000 sq.ft located at just 1km distance from Rajiv Gandhi IT Park, Chandigarh, the start-up family of Chitkara has 53 dynamic tech startups. These startups actively engage with each other to share their success stories, failure lessons and sometimes, give rise to long-lasting friendships.

Entrepreneurship being a strong part of the curriculum, the University campus has an incubator, which encourages students of different disciplines to think entrepreneurial. A structured mentoring program is held, to help students have a strong focus on student startups, provision of seed fund, and provision of subsidized incubation space and availability of subsidized incubation space. Chitkara B-school has organized close to 100 such events so far, which helps sanitize students, regarding Entrepreneurship and still strives hard to promote entrepreneurship on a larger scale.

Meet the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Madhu Chitkara

One of the co-founders of the Chitkara Educational Trust, Dr. MadhuChitkara is an eminent academician and an innovative entrepreneur. She has articulated and designed the road map for the trust, and has actively contributed to its tremendous growth and recognition in all these years, and continues to spread the light of education in the life of tens of thousands of people.

With a passion for academics and great business acumen, she has had a diversified career and variegated experience in the field of education spanning almost four decades. Knowledgeable, focused and a strategic leader, Dr. MadhuChitkara has adeptly managed numerous academic ventures and remains a true leader who ‘leads by example’ – is warm, sincere and always willing to walk the extra mile to deliver on her promises. Her support to several humanitarian causes, in association with various NGOs, is indeed a tribute to her philanthropic nature, zest for life and desire to transform other’s lives for the better, pushes her forward towards her dream of bringing a positive change to the society.