"Unveiling the Ivory Towers: An ISDM journey"

After having completed my Master's in Social work from TISS and having briefly worked for about 2 years or more, I enrolled myself in the PGP course at ISDM to upskill my managerial skills. The curriculum and the pedagogy were what draws me to apply for the course. For the Batch of 2022-2023, we were a very diverse cohort of 63 students from across all directions and geographies. Of the 63, about 55% were female. There was also a balance between freshers and experienced students. As for the Faculties, they are all high-profile and industry or sector experts with notable experiences and achievements. But what's interesting was their openness to engage and commitment in and out of the classroom to enhance the learning of the students. One thing I really liked about the program was the environment of teamwork. Assessments and exams are usually in the form of MCQ (quizzes), individual assignments or group work or all three at the end of each term.

The preparation for the placement (soft skill and orientation of placement and organisation) started in the 4th term with the actual placement starting in term 5. At the time of this writing, about 50% of the student were placed and the others were in the process. The highest package was at 10 lacs per annum.

The fee for the PGP program is 5 lac exclusive of living cost, but one has all the supports and financial assistance on need base basis in the form of a Scholarship, a living grant monthly as a stipend and deferred payment of fees upto 3 lacs with zero interest that can be paid within the period of 3 years. I received all three forms of assistance. My observation was that the students who passed out from ISDM are paid higher than the market trends that including for both freshers and experienced students. The profile of organisation participating in the placement range from domestic to an international organisation, for-profit and not-for-profit organisations, and senior management position to entry-level positions. Every students have a good amount of option to choose from depending on their area of interest. My area of interest was education and I got the match to apply for 30+ organisations

At ISDM the well-being of each student is paramount. The institute provides leisure activities with musical instruments, indoor games and mental health support and an inducive environment for every student to lead the team and collaborate. Student-organised activities run throughout the whole course. There are a number of student-organised clubs students can choose to participate in clubs like film club, book club, Prevention of sexual Harassment Committee etc. Even for a loner like me, I did participate in numerous social activities, cultural and national holidays and festivals. All the classrooms at ISDM are devised to be smart classrooms from all surround sound, availability of Class recording one can refer back to in case he/ she misses out and technologically aided applications. Students also got to be personally coached by a real experience practitioner of high profile based on their area of interest. My mentor was a CEO of a start-up.

The bare minimum to apply for the course "PGP in Development Management at ISDM" is Bachelor's degree in any stream. Any eligible interested individual can go to the website www.isdm.org.in or by typing ISDM or Indian School of Development Management using any search engine. On the home page, there are the complete details of the course, a downloadable brochure and an application form. The Institute also provides Financial Assistance (need-based)like scholarships, living grants as monthly stipends and an opportunity of deferred payment of upto 3 lacs of the course fee at zero interests rate for upto 3 years. The Application process follows four steps- 1. Fill out the application form. 2. Online assessment 3. Personal interviews and 4. Offer letter The whole Application process takes about a month.

I went through three process 1. Telephonic round, 2. Online Assessment and 3. Personal interview. The duration of the online assessment was about one and half hour. the assessment criteria was two parts 1. Cognitive ability and Data analysis and 2. Verbal ability. The difficulty level was moderate to easy. For preparation we were also given sample questions to aware us what to expect.