Message from Vice Chancellor

It has been an eventful quarter. Another academic calendar started , another mile in the pursuit of quality achieved and a vindication of our efforts in the form of the consistent ranking that NMIMS continues to hold in a declining market, as witnessed, not only in the various rating agencies’ scales, but more so in the market’s confidence in the NMIMS track record. Thus, NMIMS continues to hold pride of place among top Business Schools, both from the employers’ and students’ perspective.

“Trust is the new international currency in today’s networked world.” This statement by the Google CEO, assumes significance for every organization- be it business or academic. When governments fail and institutions- hitherto considered sacrosanct -crumble, the only key to long-term sustainability lies in market trust. A reflection of the trust that the market has placed in the cutting-edge management education that NMIMS provides, is in the 27% increase in the registrations for our NMAT program (academic year 2012-2013) over the last year’s base of 40,000 applicants. This has happened against the backdrop of the declining trend in enrolment in business schools.

Our attempts at internationalization continue, with increasing tie-ups with foreign universities and greater number of international visitors. Recently, our Family Business MBA program shared mention in the latest McKinsey Report, `The Power of Many – Realizing the Socioeconomic Potential of Entrepreneurs in the 21st century’ which was released at the G 20 Young Entrepreneurs Summit in Paris, along with the likes of organisations like Volkswagen and Babson. It is indeed a proud moment for us.

We have been rated A*** by CRISIL. However, we cannot afford to be complacent. In our quest for quality, we seek NAAC re-accreditation this year. NMIMS University was first accredited by NAAC in 1999 with a 5 star rating and subsequently reaccredited with grade ‘A’ by NAAC in 2006. The Government of India conferred on the University permanent recognition in 2008. The reaccreditation by this national body is important and would affirm the quality aspects of NMIMS with regard to systems, processes and people, as also its continuous pursuit towards excellence.

Technology is at the centre of this pursuit to excellence -be it the computer based testing that NMIMS has successfully used in the entrance examinations to various Schools, the usage of Black Board, the new administrative systems of SAP that we have adopted or the e-learning methodologies we follow.

Technology is also the theme of this special edition of e-Spandan, which features our Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering, headed by our Deans, Dr. D.J.Shah and Dr. Sunil Rai (Dean, Technology Management). MPSTME has been ranked the7th topmost “Emerging College in Excellence” in the country and 5th in Maharashtra by Competition Success Review.

The young student team at MPSTME guided by Dr. Sunil Rai and the faculty team- Dr. Vijay Raisinghani, Prof. Ketan Shah and Prof. Kiran Desai - together with our editor, Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar have done a great job of putting up this edition of e-SPANDAN.

I hope you enjoy reading this. Do send in your feedback to the editor.

I take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a Happy and prosperous Dassehra and Diwali. May the festival of lights bring us joy and peace.

Best regards,

Dr. Rajan Saxena