80% SVKM’s NMIMS School of Business Management – MBA Decision Science & Analytics Students come up trumps in various national analytics competitions
SVKM’s NMIMS (Deemed-to-be University) is known for pioneering new programmes in management and converting them into “must do” programmes for students aspiring to excel in fields of management. In 2019, NMIMS started a programme at its Mumbai campus offering dual degrees in MBA (Decision Sciences and Analytics) and MS (Business Analytics and Information Management) in partnership with Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management, USA. This new program has created quite a reputation for itself in a short span because of its impeccable course structure, its faculty and NMIMS & Purdue University brands. The impact it has had can be ascertained by the fact that almost 80% of the class has won some laurel or the other at various national level competitions thus reflecting the fine quality of students the Schools’s programmes continue to attract.
Students in only their second term have brought laurels to the School by winning competitions at IIT Madras, IIT Udaipur, Mondelez International while emerging runners up at IIM Nagpur, Goa Institute of Management, IIM Trichy and at a couple of more institutes. According to NMIMS Pro Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Subhajyoti Ray an abundance of data science and analytics programmes abound and the variation in each programme makes it difficult for a student to choose a programme. ‘It was for this reason that NMIMS in partnership with Purdue started this unique programme to offer a high value, credible, and tested pedagogy that allows MBA students to equip themselves with cutting edge data science knowledge along with a sound knowledge of business administration,’ he says.
One needs just a look at the course structure to appreciate the deep commitment involved in making this a cutting-edge programme. The design is a perfect blend of theoretical learning and practical application of concepts. The appropriate use of multiple industry-standard analytical tools like R, Python etc. are instrumental in preparing the students to take on the challenges in professional life. The high quality of the programme motivates the students to participate in competitions, thus helping them to sharpen their knowledge and perform under pressure. These learnings are further complemented at Purdue by propelling students to enhance their skills in presenting analytical solutions to clients in real time. Programme Chairperson, Dr. Rego says the structure of the programme was not incidental but was carefully planned and implemented. ‘The present trend of business to use the advantage digital age brings to analytics, was the front and leading thought in instilling an analytics specialisation program.’ Dr Rego is elated at the number of competitions attended and wins scored by the students. “Case study competitions hosted by academics or industry, are mostly on real data. They often give the participants a feel of the model-building they will be doing on the job,’ she says.
The students and the programme complement each other well, and this is evident by the high motivation levels of the students who are determined to showcase their knowledge and skills. Pratyush Raitan, a student, says, ‘The MBA DSA programme has one of the best course structures I have seen. The in-depth understanding of the concepts with its real-life implementation helped us achieve tremendous success and learning in the analytics domain. The national-level competitions are the best way to test our knowledge and provide an insight into real-world corporate problems.’
