MKU Department of Entrepreneurship Studies, 2003

The university department shifted campuses and management over the years. The last I visited was in 2010, when it was housed in the MKU campus. There were PHD students at that time.

It was a specific entrance test & Group Discussion for the course. There was an advertisement in the newspaper. The entrance dates were communicated and on selection, there was a call for the group discussion

The course curriculum was a good mix of IT and Management. Students tended to specialize in either. Some, like me, chose to take both sides seriously. The curriculum had Java programming on one side and business strategy on the other. Both components still come to use to me.

The placement cell was at that time a student organized body and did not go too far. But the course content and exposure did help in landing decent jobs for most students

Same as above. Most students joined medium or large companies in the long run of 2-3 years and salaries at that time starting at 3-4 lac per annum(2003). Which was relatively good at that time. 14 years later now. Most of the class is now in large MNCs at middle management levels

The department of entrepreneurship studies was closely associated with the Center for Entrepreneurship development, Tamil Nadu. We used to be invited to several government sponsored events on entrepreneurship. We also got to interact with other colleges in the city through college fests. We as such did not host any such events

The fee was affordable at around 18k per trimester. You had to pay fees 3 times a year for the 2 year course. Further to that there were other occasional fees and subscriptions collected, which did not exceed Rs 1000 per trimester. Again this was 14 years ago, This is as per my memory!

I did not use any form of loan or scholarship. There were opportunities for the students to work on government projects. But I am not sure about stipends.

Most students were from Tamil Nadu. Gender Ratio of male to female was almost 50/50. While most students were from BSc/ BCOM backgrounds. There were a handful of engineers. As far as economic status goes, most students were from the middle class. Not sure of any sexual orientation other that heterosexual males and females in the class

The campus was away from the university and hostel facilities were not provided. But the hostel of Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary was nearby. Most students who were not Madurai Locals stayed there. They had a decent mess which took monthly payments. This being before the mobile phone days, there was a decent telecom center in the campus

Most of the alumni connections are on social media. It has been informal and cordial. I am not aware of any job referrals which happened through these networks. I for one was able to understand the market better and prospects for jobs based on conversation with seniors

It was a specific entrance test & Group Discussion for the course. There was an advertisement in the newspaper. The entrance dates were communicated and on selection, there was a call for the group discussion. The entrance test was on general knowledge, science and math. The GD was about about the role played by men and women in society

The faculty at that time were a good mix of purely academic and those with past corporate experience. That was a good mix. All the faculty handling subjects relating to marketing had good experience on customer facing roles. Further, the IT faculty had returned from the US and had given us good pointers in preparing for the work place