“Students First” Initiatives must do for a college.

Dr Sonali Yadav

Assistant Professor (Sel.Grde)

School of Management

The paradigm shift in the educational institutions towards being student centric is the need of the hour. B schools the world over have realized the importance of ‘Students First’ initiatives, but still, there is a lot to do in this direction. The NorthCap University is one such B school that endeavours to be a student centric institution. Why ‘students first’? Students being the most important stakeholders in the educational institutions will shape the way an organization will progress tomorrow. Students are the customer as well as the end product for the educational institutions. Thus, emerges the need to ‘empower’ them. At, The NorthCap University, students are empowered to take various measures. I present a three-fold structure to empower the students towards Students.

First initiatives. First, the curriculum design is one of the most basic platforms where student participation has never been thought of. Curriculum of The NorthCap University is designed in such a way that it fulfills the needs of the industry. The faculty is entrusted with the Herculean task of designing and implementing the curriculum. It is high time, that instead of telling the students what’ they will learn in the coming semester, the focus can be diverted towards ‘how’ they would like to learn. Moving from ‘what’ to ‘how’ will itself empower them. Questions, as to what ways or activities they have enjoyed the most during the previous semesters can guide a faculty in modifying their current curriculum design. We must agree that they are the newer generation and their ideas will definitely help us keep pace with the expectations of today’s generation. 

Second, they must be encouraged to use technology when they share their work with the entire class. The NorthCap University is equipped with the latest technology and is digitized. ‘Self guided’ assignments are another way of instilling confidence and preparedness in the students. They may be given assignment questions in advance before they learn a topic in the class. This way, a sense of experiment and enquiry makes them more connected to the course. 

Third, ‘online forums’ may be created with the group of students where they can put their views and queries related to the topic discussed in the classroom. Being part of these discussion groups is advantageous to both the students as well as the teachers. Students gain through peer learning and teachers get the instant feedback of how the class is progressing. This way a student is not at the receiving end only, rather, he/she becomes an active participant.