Watch Out For The New And Improved Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT)

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In a research conducted by NIRF, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) has secured the 31st rank. Considering records from the previous years, IIFT’s rank has gone down by 8 places. In 2016 and 2017 it had featured on the 81st and 30th rank respectively. While it secured the 23rd position in 2018.

The management institutes were ranked on the basis of National Institutional Ranking Framework and the rank list of its fourth edition was declared in April 2019.

For the cause of this downfall, the director, Manoj Pant, mentioned that the rankings have stayed consistent in every field. The two which needed improvement were ‘Perception and Research and Professional practice’ parameters. According to him, these two were primary pain points for the institute. These had affected the institute’s position tremendously in the past few years.

The institute has, however, been working on these parameters, remarked the director. He said that the current rankings were based on the data obtained in 2017-18. Only about 40 faculty members had existed then. The IIFT family has had an addition of around 15 more faculty members in the last one year.

He also mentioned about another round of recruitment process, conducted to hire faculty members in Kolkata. This would increase the total strength to 70. This would improve the ratings of the college considerably in the coming years, he added.

To improve the rankings in the parameter of Perception, the institute is looking forward to contacting Alumni and corporates in addition to other stakeholders. It is essential to bring the achievements of the students in various activities and competitions in the picture. Holding the position of a premier business school, the institute needs to focus on showcasing its research especially to the stakeholders, acknowledged the director.

He emphasized upon the fact that all students from the MBA (IB) batch of 2019 got placed with an average annual package of around Rs. 20 Lakh, thus, giving 100% placement.

In regard to improving the coverage of the institutional activities, the director pointed out that the institute has planned to revive the PR agency. He also brought to notice that IIFT is a self-financed institute. The only grant received by it from the Ministry of Commerce was for its capital expenditure.  

In the light of the institute’s progress, Pant said that the measures taken by the institute will hopefully help in improving the ranking of IIFT.

IIFT, with this, has joined the ranks of dynamic institutes which are constantly evolving and working towards becoming better.