This MBA programme at SIAM aims to make students ready to deal in international business. 

 

After completing his Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS) from Bangalore, India, Jayanta Kayasth returned home with the intention of completing his masters level in the country. He was looking for an MBA course which would give him knowledge about international business and its various aspects. Then he came across the course, MBA Global Business, run by South Asian Institute of Management (SAIM). He got enrolled in the course without a second thought. Kayasth, who today works as the HR Specialist at the telecom giant Ncell, thinks he made a wise decision by choosing to study MBA Global Business.

 

“I returned to Nepal, making up my mind to study in the country. At the same time, I wanted to continue gaining knowledge of global business environment and market trends along with the regular MBA knowledge. For that, I joined MBA Global Business at SAIM in 2013.”

 

Sharing is experience, Kayasth further says, “I learnt holistic management skills along with the knowledge of global business scenario. The programme offered vivid insights into the global business trends, impacts and importance of the globalisation of market, system of multinational companies and their success, failure, strategies etc besides managerial knowledge.” He adds that his educational knowledge and experience have been helping him interpret and analyze even a minute data, minimise risks and maximize returns on investment.

 

SAIM Principal Ashok Raj Pandey also highlights the aim of MBA Global Business ingenerating skilled managers and entrepreneurs with a global mindset to support the national economic growth. “The programme helps to expand the national market globally at least concentrating on Asia and South Asia to some extent,” shares Pandey.

 

Teaching ways to expand business globally 

SAIM introduced MBA Global Business in 2010. “Our business education would be incomplete if we are not cognizant of the international market trends in this age of globalisation,” says Pandey.

 

Referring to the development of different developing countries like South Korea, Japan, Singapore etc, Pandey underscores the importance of MBA Global Business for expanding the business and export of the country. “Nepal’s internal market is also very small. India’s market is 50 times bigger than Nepal’s. If we could penetrate even a small segment of the Indian market, we could accelerate our economic growth. Many things are to be learnt in parallel to the international market. For these purposes, we need to have an idea of international business which is offered by MBA Global Business.”

 

 

Course Initiation

SAIM is the only college in Nepal running the MBA Global Business programme. The college began the programme in affiliation with Pokhara University (PU). Pandey says, “It took a year to prepare for introducing the programme by developing the course and getting approval from PU.” The course is designed in a way that makes the students capable of handling business at the international level. 

 

Unlike the regular MBA course of 66 credit hours, MBA Global Business has 69 credit hours. Of the total credit hours, internship and thesis hold three credit hours each. SAIM has been running the two-year programme in six trimesters. Classes of the programme are run for 13 weeks in each trimester.

 

Course of Study

Some international standard courses including Seminar in Business and Development in South and Southeast Asia, Cross Cultural Communication and Negotiations, Global Culture and Consumer Behavior and Management Control System embedded in MBA Global Business have made the programme different from the regular MBA programme.

 

Like other MBA courses, MBA Global Business, too, comprises basic courses of MBA like Organisational Behaviour, Human Resource Management, Business Studies, Finance Management, Accounting etc to support the base of general management education. 

 

The basic courses are taught in the first two trimesters. From the third trimester, the students themselves decide whether to opt for different elective courses as per their interest and strength.

 

Management Control is another unique programme which is not taught in any other programme. It teaches the students how managers control others in managerial positions. 

 

Scope

The programme graduates have a wider scope in both national and international job markets. “We have no instance of our graduates facing any difficulties in the job market,” shares Pandey. The students after their graduation can find jobs in the banking sector, corporate houses, manufacturing sector etc.

 

The programme graduates are being deployed in many reputed ogranisations of the country including Coca Cola Nepal, Unilever Nepal, Ncell Pvt Ltd and even different INGOs.

 

 

Pedagogy

In the beginning, MBA Global Business students at SAIM were taught through guest lecturers and case studies, besides the regular classes. But for the past four years, the students have also been practicing group discussions, role playing, presentation and counseling session.“We are guiding them in role playing in the ‘case study and management control subject’ to support them to view different comprehensive cases from the managerial perspective.

 

Likewise, the students are required to make a presentation of what they study to enhance their communication skills in mass. “The students are taught by qualified and experienced faculty members,” points out Pandey.

 

Kayasth shares, “Professors graduating from Harvard University taught us how multinational companies including Coca Cola, Toyota, Sony Corporation succeeded in expanding their markets worldwide. Such teaching helped us to explore international business.”

 

Pandey says that the college has been running a separate session for clarifying the confusion and difficulties in understanding anything that they study in their regular classes. According to Pandey, it has been eight months since SAIM has been running separate classes for thesis preparation in the fourth trimester. They work out on how to write thesis so that the students can complete their thesis at the same time right after the completion of the course. 

 

Besides, SAIM offers computer classes including advance Excel and SPSS to sharpen the computer skills of the students. 

 

Internship/Research Assistantship

For the real-life experience of what they study in classrooms, the students are sent to different ogranisations for two months in their fifth trimester under internship or research assistantship programmes. During the programme, they are required to continue their regular classes in the morning. According to the college, around 410 students have completed their internships at different business houses in the country so far.

 

Evaluation

MBA Global Business students are evaluated not only by the college but also by PU. “Sixty percent of the evaluation is done internally by our college while 40 percentof the evaluation is done directly by PU through written examinations in the first and final trimesters. Students’ internship projects, graduate seminars, term papers, practicum, and research projects are evaluated by the faculty of the college.

 

Admission Criteria

Students from any discipline securing minimum 45 percent of aggregate marks or 2 GPA in their bachelor’s level can apply for admission to MBA Global Business. In each intake of the programme, 30 students are selected based on their academic records, statement of objectives, scores in the entrance test and performance in their group discussion, presentation, interview and essay writing.

 

The college opens admissions twice a year -in March and August. Currently, the college has around 115 students enrolled in six trimesters. The total fee for the two-year MBA Global Business is Rs 620,000. SAIM itself provides all the textbooks required for the entire programme at the total cost of Rs15,000 at the beginning of the programme. As early as a couple of years ago, the college had been providing scholarships of up to 10 percent to three needy and bright students. Now, PU has been offering the same scholarships.

 

Class Hours

MBA Global Business classes are run at SAIM from 7:30am to 9 am and from 9:30 am to 11am from Sunday to Friday.