The oldest business school in the country is going to have a campus in Delhi-NCR. In an interview Fr. P. Christie S.J., Director, XLRI-Xavier School of Management, talks about his vision for the new campus

Why did you decide to start a campus in Delhi-NCR?

Being the oldest business school (XLRI, Jamshedpur was India’s first business school, founded in 1949.) we were very keen to branch out for a long time now. Since 2012, we have been working towards getting a campus near the Capital and now finally the sessions will start from the next year. Also, Delhi is the nerve-centre for many businesses. XLRI’s Delhi-NCR campus is located in Jhajjar, around 25 kms from Gurugram. The AICTE approval for the new campus is awaited in 2020.

What will be the admission procedure for this new campus?

The admission process will remain the same as XLRI, Jamshedpur. Students will have to appear for XAT 2020. In the first phase, two sections of 60 students each for the Business Management programme (2020-22 batch) will be granted admission. Senior faculty from the Jamshedpur campus will be conducting classes in the new campus. There will also be short-term management programmes in this campus.

Will there be any collaboration with other institutions?

We are collaborating for some national-level programmes. The talks are on but till the time a MoU is signed, we can’t divulge details.

Do we need more management institutions considering so many business schools shut shop in the last few years?

Unfortunately the last decade saw the exponential growth of B-schools due to the commercialisation of education. Unless we constantly update our curriculum to meet the current needs of the industry, management programmes will become obsolete. Many a times, bureaucracy comes in the way of curriculum. This leads to a scenario where we aren’t producing people with competency. So we need institutions of repute to bring out industry-relevant curriculum.

How do you bridge the industry-academia gap at XLRI?

With the economic development, we need business leaders. We are working on restricting our curriculum to meet the current demands of the industry. Unless we re-skill ourselves, we won’t succeed. There is a need for learning to learn. If you continue to learn you will succeed.

https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/xlri-campus-to-come-up-near-delhi-1628961-2019-12-17