One of the most significant trends sweeping the Indian management education domain is the significant importance being attached to prior work-experience of MBA candidates.

Overwhelming percentage of students at IIMs and other top-schools are candidates with some prior work experience.

In the fresh data shared by IIM-L with MBAUniverse.com, a whopping 89% of candidates admitted to the Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) have some prior work experience. Significantly, just a year ago, only 50% of the batch admitted to PGP 2007-2009 were candidates with work-experience.

Informs IIM-L, “The total number of experienced students in 2007-2009 batch were 122 (50.41%) which has increased to 274 (89.25%) for 2008-2010 batch. This is an increase of around 49% in the total number of experienced students.”

As per the IIM-L batch-profile of PGP 2008-10, of the 307 students, there are only 30 female students. Last year the number stood at 14 female students. There are 24 NRI students as well. As much as 93% of the batch at IIM-L is made of students with engineering degree.

IIM-L has also admitted 5 students who have some physical disability, thereby become a more inclusive institution.

Sources : mbauniverse.com

In business, it’s the early bird that rakes in the moolah. Taking cue from the age-old proverb, two MBA students have turned entrepreneurs even before graduating.

H.R. Sampreet and Saurav Dhiman, second-year students of the Vinod Gupta School of Management at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, have launched their own company, Enfount Business Solutions. Their maiden venture is Bulkdeals.co.in, a Bangalore-based online retail window specialising in institutional and organisational buying of laptops, desktops and other electronic items.

“Across campuses, students form groups to buy computers so retailers give them a discount,” said Sampreet. “But this happens locally and in an unorganised manner,” he explained.

The duo saw a business opportunity in this campus trend and created an online platform that is a one-stop-shop for bulk deals of laptops and desktops of all brands.

“Here, students can register and get great deals directly from the brands,” Sampreet said. “We estimate this to be a Rs 200-400 crore market. The brands, too, were looking for a single window to reach out to the student community. We had the business model and wanted to hit the market early, so we started even before graduating,” he added.

The company is partnering with almost all top brands such as Dell, LG, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo and HCL.

The website had over 1,000 visitors in the first three days of its launch and already has more than 300 members and over 20 registered colleges, including all the IITs.

When asked how they plan to balance studies with running a business, Saurav said: “It is all about time management. Our business requires just two or three hours a day, which we can easily put in.”

More : telegraphindia.com

Once again students from the School of Business & Economics MBA programme will be taking up the challenge of competing in the 2008 Cranfield Regatta, an international sailing event which is designed to allow MBA students and alumni from all over Europe to meet their counterparts from other business schools. The regatta will take place around Port Solent and Cowes on the last weekend in July and Exeter’s eight-strong crew are working hard in the hope of a high placing for the University. The crew is made up of part-time and full-time MBA students and alumni who have a broad range of sailing skills and experience but are dedicated to doing their best for Exeter. This year’s crew consists of current students Nadia Nikolova, Simon Baird, Nagyb Shah, Stuart Harris, Richard Dawson and alumni Jonny Malcolm, Mark Roberts and Wade Tipton. The race will consist of four head to head races with the various business school teams taking part. The team has is being sponsored by Vospers South West Motor Dealership, Jam Creative, The Birmingham Assay Office and House of Marbles.

More : atom.ex.ac.uk

Would-be MBA students getting ready to take the GMAT might be in for a little surprise when they show up at the testing center. In addition to all the usual security measures—including video monitoring and the computer adaptive test itself—test takers will soon be asked to submit to a new one: a biometric device that uses an infared light to capture the test-taker’s unique “palm vein pattern.”

Pearson VUE, the company that administers the GMAT for the Graduate Management Admission Council, plans to announce the new security effort tomorrow, but BusinessWeek got a sneak peak at it today.

The Fujitsu “PalmSecure” device will be rolled out next month at 16 testing centers in India and Korea for GMAT candidates. It goes live in the U.S. this fall, and when fully deployed will be used in 400 facilities in 107 countries by May 2009.

The announcement comes as the b-school world is embroiled in a cheating scandal involving the GMAT–users of a now-defunct test prep Web site, Scoretop.com, have been accused by GMAC of using it to post and access live test questions, and GMAC has said it will cancel the test scores of anyone who violated its rules.

But the new security measure is designed to stop a different kind of cheating–the use of professional test takers, or proxies, to take the exam on behalf of someone else. GMAC’s been burned by this type of cheater before. Back in 2003, it busted a half dozen people who took the GMAT for others for about $5,000 a pop. GMAC canceled 166 scores as a result, and five of the six imposters ended up at Rikers.

More : businessweek.com

The recruitment company Adecco has started cooperating with Copenhagen Business School (CBS) which is to result in the MBA students remaining in Denmark after their graduation, writes Børsen Business Daily.

“According to CBS many of the MBA students would like to work in Denmark. However, the tendency is that a majority returns to their own countries because it is difficult for them to be integrated on the labour market. Therefore it is important that we do everything we can to integrate them during their student period so that afterwards companies will be prepared to take them on,” says Adecco’s Marketing Director Nikolaj Henum.

This is to happen through coaching and career consultancy during their education.

“We cannot guarantee anything but we will do our utmost to find work for the 35 students,” he says, emphasising that Adecco has a strong network within Danish business life and will therefore have a good entry for the students to the labour market.

When the first MBA group in the alliance will finish in August, Adecco will start to get the students in contact with the companies. Their profiles will be placed on Adecco.dk just as they will get in contact with relevant companies. Moreover, a special entry will be launched with a database of the 35 MBA students.

More : copcap.com

An investigation is underway into alleged online cheating by prospective and current MBA students. Thousands are accused of looking at current questions on their entrance exams. The publisher of the test has shut down the domain and is looking into who used it to cheat. Those scores could be thrown out. A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered Scoretop.com to pay the Graduate Management Admission Council 2.35 million dollars and to turn over a computer hard drive containing payment information and user IDs. The council has sued Scoretop’s operator for copyright infringement. It alleges the site offered current questions from the Graduate Management Admission Test as well as other private material.

More : wlns.com

Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business is once again offering help to businesses in the Triangle who are seeking consulting services.

MBA students are available to work with firms that can’t afford to pay consulting fees. Students will receive course credit for their efforts.

Fuqua students have worked with more than 300 companies over the 25 years of the program.

To be eligible for the program, businesses must meet certain criteria:

More : localtechwire.com

MBA students of the Institute of Management in Kerala (IMK) are organising a South Indian Management Meet, christened ‘Mania-2004′, here on August 7 and 8.

IMK is the Faculty of Management Studies, the University of Kerala, and operates from the University Campus, Palayam, in the city. ‘Mania - 2004′ will be the 10th edition of a regular annual feature in IMK’s scheme of things right from year 1994.

According to student representatives of IMK, ‘Mania’ enjoys the patronage of reputed business houses across South India and draws participation from premier B-Schools. Last year, 21 institutions had participated and the Institute of Financial and Management Research (IFMR), Chennai, won the overall championship.

After two years nail-biting, management and engineering students are finally breathing easy. India Inc is back on campus and is absorbed nearly 50 percent more students than any other during the last year.

Enterprise Information Technology (IT) sector, banks and financial services, industry and services are the largest employment agency.

Tata Consultancy Services, for example, plans to recruit 4000 students in MBA and engineering schools, compared to 2500 last year. Engineering major Larsen & Toubro requirements increased by 600 to 800 students this year.

However, Pay-packets are not negligible. Back 12 months, and the stage in the university campus was quite different.

“ During the last year, we were to require companies on campus to come, this year they Come Knocking,’’said Abbasali Gabula, chairperson, external relations, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research. Although the SP Jain official courses will begin in the first week of February, they have already been approached by 80 companies.

Ditto for Gurgaon-based Management Development Institute (MDI). “ Last year, 45 companies were on campus, but this year, 105 companies have shown interest,’’said Dr. Pritam Singh, director, MDI.

Walk in IIT Powai’s make-do canteen, coffee-Shack, and the variation in students’ mood is sensitive. He is happy, relaxed faces compared with the nervous, frightened of last year.

“ The number of nuclear industry (manufacturing), who come to campus this year is higher. Otherwise, the large computer companies have been recruiting,’’says Professor Gupta NC, PROFI-In-Charge of placement, IIT, Bombay.

“ I had to appear for seven rounds of interviews, but I finally received my dream company ITC,’’smiles IITian BTech (electric) Nalin Agrawal student. With a package of Rs 7 lakh per year under his belt, he has reason to rejoice. Nearly half are already batchmates its meeting of the plum jobs, while 30% want higher studies.

The dotcom boom of 2000 has been a dream for a period of MBA students and engineering schools, most of whose students receive two to three job offers. The party’s degree a year later, it was difficult to maintain, even as many have been dismissed.

The Ambani “Kahani ‘is the word of the city B-schools. MBA students were stuck in Kochi, Ambani drama, as it unfurled in the last seven months, with all the ingredients of a Hindi film, where Mataji comes on Khandaan rescue.

The future leaders of the full marks Kokila Ben for resolving the issue by the division of the Reliance empire between the two son.

“This would be done. However, the division is not to break the Empire. Diversified portfolio brothers, the company takes only more and better,” said Praveen S., a student of management of Cochin University of Science and Technology.

After Ancheril J. Varkey, a student of Master of Human Resource Management, Rajagiri College, the two brothers are in a position of excellence in their portfolios allocated. “It was a good decision for the family. The future of some three million shareholders was the match. The decision also pleased to market,” he said.

During Shweta Narayanan, another student at the same institution, which felt Split have arrived and “sooner the better,” said Rahul Ramesh consider the topic for months. “We believe that the two brothers are very satisfied with what they have,” said Jayakrishnan, a student of MBA Rajagiri.

As each billing, Mukesh Ambani reserves the flagship of the company - Reliance Industries Ltd - and petrochemical venture IPCL. Anil Ambani gets Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital, he, like Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA).

“Reliance is divided in any case a good case study for us. I am very impressed by the performance plan announced by Anil Ambani. But it is still too early to say whether it can make Reliance Capital in the third largest provider financial services companies and banks in the country, “said S. Vijayan Laja, MBA student at the School of Management and Communication Studies (SCMS), Kalamassery.

During Liya Kuru Villa de Rajagiri warned that the division is a story continues, and it could once again divide the kingdom is the next generation, who like Aysha of Cusat Basheer believes that the family line has already tarnished the image of the Empire was again built on the basis of an RS-100000 crore Corporate giant in 25 years by Dhirubhai Ambani.

However, Mr. Raghu far from the SCMS brushed this comment. “In the days of the Ram and Laxman. Who is all that counts.”

But, is gaining the upper hand in the long term? So far, two different roles to play: Mukesh was the brain and spokesman Anil. “Mukesh is more professional and this is certainly an advantage for him. Anil gives a touch of glamour to what he does,” said Dennis Thomas SCMS.

But his friend Raghu warned that the ability to Anil should not be underestimated. He finally broke the silence and was totally transparent about its plans, “said Raghu.