Shivdas Manikkan's Review On S.P Mandali's Prin L.N Welingkar Institute Of Management Development & Research (WeSchool), Mumbai

WIM as my college is now known has laid the foundation of my career and I would be ever indebted to all the faculty in teaching me whatever that has helped me survive 25 years post passing out.

This was one of the 8 colleges at that point of time offering the M.M.S course under the Mumbai University umbrella. Jamnalal Bajaj Institute was the pioneer in post graduation management studies and the common entrance test was conducted by them, post which we had to apply to various colleges which had their own selection procedures based on academics, common entrance test scores, group discussions and personal interview. I had applied to Welingkar, Chetana, Sommaiya and Bhartiya Vidyapeeth and got selected at Welingkar.

The course curriculum was pretty exhaustive at that point of time 25 years ago and prepared the students for the corporate life. Opted for marketing. The courses offered were Finance, Marketing, Personnel and Operations. There was equal emphasis on classroom lectures and practical experience.

The college does not provide internship, but in the break between second and third term we invite companies to recruit students for summer placement where students get exposure into the corporate scene and handles certain projects which helps the company. The stipends in those days were INR 1000 p.m.

The placement scene was pretty good as 100 % got placed, barring those who did not want to get into the corporate world and wanted to pursue their own business or help in their family business. This was 25 years ago and to give detailed figures would be pretty tough. I got absorbed in Bombay Burmah Trading Co. at a stipend of INR 2500 p.m.

We had several cultural events to keep the students and professors engaged such as Mr.Manager and Ms.Manager contests which would be judged jointly by the senior batch and professors based on vivas, appearance, academic accomplishment etc. Our college used to conduct the International Management Film Festival wherein foreign management films would be screened and industry experts would be invited to give their expert opinion on the message of the film with an Indian perspective followed by question/ answer sessions with the audience comprising of students from our college as well as other management Institutes.

It would be very difficult for me to give in detail the fee structure as it's been 25 years since I passed out, but would say it was not very expensive and was relatively affordable as compared to what I hear nowadays about the astronomical fees being charged for a management degree.

Frankly no idea I'm sure nowadays one can avail of education loans from banks. These loans come with certain tax benefits too, so overall it's a win-win situation for everyone.

We were a class of 50 of which 11 were girls, so would put the ratio at 80:20, don't know if this is acceptable or not but was given to understand that our batch was the first one with such a high ratio of girls. Might be things have changed over the course of time and the ratio might also be reversed. We took part in a lot of extra curricular activities like trekking, hiking, overnight trips to places like Mahabaleswar, Mt. Abu on Executive Development Programmes.

I was a day scholar so would not be able to comment on the hostel facilities, but the hostel was in the same campus as the college, so the hostelite's was definitely at an advantage in terms of being in time for lectures. The food was pretty much ok and sunday's used to be their feast day. Used to hang around with friends who used to stay in the hostel.

The seniors were a chilled lot and always were ready to help out in terms of guidance on course to be taken, previous years notes, similarly when we became seniors we tried our best to help our junior batch in settling down and mind you no ragging or things of that sort, friendly banter only.

The course was divided into 4 semesters spread over 2 years wherein the 3 semesters were conducted by college and the 4th semester exams were conducted by the Mumbai University. There were frequent class assignments and projects that would keep the student updated on the topics being covered and this in turn helped in the semester exams.

Would recommend very highly of the faculty which boasted such stalwarts as Prof. Shahuraja, Mankikar, Gondhalekar, Srinivasan, Banerjee. The principal was Dr.Khopardekar and we had Ms. Usha Apte who though being a professor herself, more of a student counsellor, helping us make right career decisions. She taught Perspective management.