IIMC-Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
Generel Information
IIMC is one of the best MBA schools in Asia. There are almost 150 000 who are
applying for the 250 places offered by the school. So you will find the students very
good, but do not worry. The school offers a lot of different courses within finance,
management, marketing, economics and also special courses which you will only find in
India.
The school is located outside the center of Calcutta, a city of 14 million people. The
distance is approximately 15 km into the center of the city. The school is surrounded by
the hectic life of Calcutta but the campus is slower, surrounded by seven lakes. The
campus has five hostels that provide accommodation for a very low fee (300 kr for three
months rent). You will get a single room with a fan. There is no AC at the hostel, but the
fan is more than enough. Every room has internet so bring your computer. It is also
possible to rent a computer in the campus for a small fee. The students share bathroom in
each floor and eat in the same cafeteria. Every hostel has its own small shop where you
can buy practical stuff. There is one ATM located at the campus which takes both VISA
and MasterCard. There is also a gym in the campus, football field and tennis courts so it
is no problem to work out.
The regular program offered by IIMC is a two year Post graduate diploma in
management (equivalent to MBA). There are about 500 Post graduate students on IIM,
with 250 students in each year. As an exchange student you attend classes with the
second year students. We were 50 exchange students from ten countries.
The first week at school there is a shopping week where the professors talks about the
courses. This week is for the students to decide which courses to attend. Therefore you
should agree with the professor in Norway to approve more courses than just the three
you have to take. Because you might want to change some courses after the shopping
week.
The students at IIMC are very helpful and will get you started the first week. If you need
any help with anything related to school, practical stuff with the city or illness the
students will take care of you.
Teaching and Courses
The teaching and the courses is not very different from BI. The teaching is in English and
it might take some time to get used to the Indian accent. Some professors are better than
other. The courses and the workload do not differ a lot from BI, we did not find the
workload heavier than at BI.
The administrative part of the school can be rather frustrating from what you are used to
at BI. Things usually take more time.
The students and faculty at IIM are very proud of their library, but compared to BI
standard it is old fashioned. The database for articles and relevant material is pretty good.
You get access to the library simple by using your ID-card.
The literature required for the courses you will get for free after the shopping weekend.
Textbooks and pencils you can buy at campus in one of the shops. The literature does not
differ much from at BI. Most of the literature will be from same authors used at BI.
The exams usually are shorter than at BI. They will vary from one hour to three hours.
Usually mid terms are one hour and final exam two hour long.
The Economics of Human Resources
This is an economics course about the labour market. How wages, labour participation
and other factors in the labour market are determined. The students had to do one project,
one presentation and there is one final exam. The teacher was my favourite teacher
during this semester. He was concerned about the students and wanted us to do well. The
teacher was very good at getting the students to interact in the classroom.
International economics
I did not like the teacher very much in this course because he was quite boring to listen
to. On the other side the course is excellent and really interesting. If you want more
knowledge why countries should trade with each other and that in general everybody
benefits from trade you should definitely take this course. The literature was really good
and you have to do a project which you will learn a lot from. There is also one
presentation and a final exam in this course.
Structured Finance
This was a course many of the students found difficult. There is one mid term and a final
exam, but there was an option to do a project instead of taking the final exam. The
teacher also gave the students an option in the mid term to take the mid term or a excel
spreadsheet. The teacher in this course was famous and had a lot of knowledge on this
subject. Structured finance covers a lot of stuff from the finance world and if you want to
learn about the hottest stuff in finance you should take the course. I did learn a lot from
this course even the course was very hard.
Management of International Operations
This is a course that BI approved as advanced course in Management. Basically, the
course is a general mix of challenges enterprises meet when they operate on multiple
markets. The challenges are linked to strategies for marketing, supply chain management
and organizational management. The professor in the course is very good. He presents
the course material in enthusiastically way. The course is evaluated by term-papers,
quizzes and discussions. The class was relatively small, about 20 students. This made the
teaching environment very good. You get to take part in interesting discussions with both
Indian and other exchange students. The workload is relatively high, but we absolutely
recommend this course.
Marketing in Practice
The course is especially interesting if you want to know more about India. Even though
there concepts presented during the course were in part applicable for markets outside
India, the main focus was on the domestic market. This course gave us unique insight
into one of the most interesting markets in the world. The Indian market is huge and fast
growing whish makes it a market for the future. The course is based on scientific articles
as well as guest lectures from Indian and international companies doing business in India.
This was the largest class on school counting about 70 students. We found this course
very interesting and recommend it to all exchange students. The evaluation is based on
term papers and presentations.
Marketing Strategy
As the name of the course implies, the aim is to see how marketing issues can play an
important role for a company’s strategic decisions. This course had a very different form
of evolution and the lectures were based on reading articles and presenting it for the
professor. In addition the professor could have surprise essay-quizzes. The course
required allot of reading. However, the most challenging part was to actually understand
the main contributions of the articles. The Professor had high standards in regards to
student performance. However, the course was very interesting, so we absolutely
recommend this course. The class was relatively small, about 25 students. It consisted of
Indian as well as international students. This made the lectures more personal and
everyone could get the chance to contribute during class.
Practical info on the school & the exchange experience
Information before we left:
We received an information package containing a cd and a bulletin. This gave us an
impression of campus, courses, student life etc. The school also has a website with allot
of helpful information. http://www.iimcal.ac.in/
Visa procedure and travel experiences
To get a visa we had to contact the Indian Embassy in Oslo. Bring with you 2 pass
photos, a letter that you have been accepted as a student at IIM (both from BI and Indian
Institute of Management). You can either go to the embassy yourself, or call them and
they will send you the visa application form. It costs 400 NOK to get a visa.
We booked our tickets through Kilroy travels, since this was the cheapest alternative. We
arrived in Calcutta a couple of days before the semester started to get settled, but this is
not a necessity. At the airport two students from IIM picked us up, which was a very nice
gesture. Each student had their own “Buddy” to help them out in the beginning.
Academic calendar:
The semester starts in the beginning of September, and last until the beginning of
December. The first week, called “shopping week”, the students chose the courses that
they wanted to attend. First there are 5 weeks of study before the mid-term exam period.
After mid-term there is a festival called Durga Puja and then we had one week holiday.
This week is a good opportunity to travel. The semester lasts for 5 more weeks until the
end-term period.
Costs:
In general everything is very cheap in India. You do not have to pay more than 300NOK
for housing and course materials. If you eat all the meals everyday the whole month you
will pay approximately 250 NOK. With a Cab from campus to the city you will pay at
most 30 NOK. A nice dinner at a restaurant in Calcutta costs 40 NOK. Laundry costs
about 30 NOK a month.
Social activities:
The atmosphere on campus was really good and relaxing. Since all the students stayed on
campus it was easy to socialize. There were some arranged parties on campus, and we got
to know both Indians and other exchange students.
You also have the opportunity to do sport on campus; soccer, tennis, volleyball,
basketball, table tennis and more. You can also work out in the gym, but do not expect
the best equipments. We arranged a sport meeting where the exchange students competed
against the Indian students in many different sports. It was really fun and a good way to
get to know other students.
In addition you will get allot of time to travel. There are a couple of holidays during the
semester, and since the semester is shorter than on BI, you will get the time to travel both
before and after the semester.
Our personal experience
An exchange year in India is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you really want to
experience something exiting we recommend IIMC. The culture is really different from
what you will see anywhere else in the world. The people are so helpful and nice. The
country is full of exiting places to see. This is a semester you will never forget. The
academic experience is very good; however this is not the main reason to go to India,
obviously. Getting to know Indian students and other exchange students is a great
experience. Life in Calcutta is very exiting. In addition you can travel allot, and because
of the low expenses, you can afford to travel more than you would in any other part of the
world. During the months in India the exchange students travelled to such diverse places
as, Himalaya, Goa, Bombay, Delhi, Andaman Island, China, Vietnam, Singapore,
Malaysia, Thailand, Varanasi, Nepal and so on. We experienced everything from big city
life, to Himalaya tracking reaching peaks of over 5000 meters. We visited cultural sights,
and lived the relaxed life in the paradise island of Havelock. In short, go to India and
have the time of your life.
Contact if any questions regarding our exchange.
Glenn-Robert Monsen (glennro@hotmail.com)
André Herman Julin (andrejulin@gmail.com)
Snorre Aas Meyer (snorreaas@hotmail.com)