International Experience at XIMB

Set in the heart of the city of Bhubaneswar is the campus of Xavier Institute of Management, which is a big sprawling campus complete with lush greenery and picturesque surroundings. It is the seat of knowledge and learning and is a wonderful experience to be part of. The student, the faculty, the staff all live within the campus as part of one large family.

XIMB provides to the students under the international student exchange programme, an excellent opportunity to interact and gain knowledge from the learned and experienced faculty who are willing to reach out to students not only in academic but in personal matters as well.

These students, who are a part of this incredible journey; live, learn and enjoy in this campus. It is like a ‘home away from home’ for them. Within a few days of stay, the students managed to pick up the Indian word ‘Namaste’ and promptly use it with anybody when approached !!!

Binsamou Christopher, a French student from IESEG, France, doing the fourth term of PG diploma in management (PGDM) at XIMB said to Expressbuzz, “Though I have a bachelor’s degree in finance and audit from France, the subjects offered here are pretty varied and interesting. Strategic management, accounting, business to business marketing, project management and IT strategy are some of the topics I had not studied earlier. The scope of learning here is vast and the approach is more practical”. Students get to do short term projects as part of their PGDM course with companies like Britannia and Apollo Hospital which definitely adds to the practical aspect of learning. (Article dated 23/08/2010 http://expressbuzz.com/education/namaste-is-the-only-hindi-word-he-knows/199687.html).

But life here is not all about studying. The motto goes “Study hard, Party Harder”. The oh-so-famous JLTs (Just Like That Parties) and Block Parties and not to forget the awesome parties thrown by the International Relations Committee (IRC) are the life blood of the student community here. Starting late at nights and continuing till the wee hours of the morning, gets students to chill out together and forget all academic pressures.

XIM efficiently offers a little bit for everybody. Sports fanatics turn joyous by the variety of sporting facilities available here. Be it football, basketball, tennis or indoor games like table tennis and badminton; numerous matches are organised with great fanfare where everyone participates either by playing in the match or cheering for the game as the audience.

Cultural enthusiasts also get their share by the large number of events and occasions like ‘Parichay’, ‘Sambandh’, etc. which are organized at frequent intervals in XIMB. French students have taken great delight in being a part of such programmes and have thoroughly enjoyed their roles.

The experience goes beyond the campus with a lot of beautiful places to visit and fun places to hang-out in and around Bhubaneswar. Come weekends and hangout places like Mayfair, Pal Heights, TDS throng with the XIMB student masses. Trips to Puri and Konark, visiting the ancient temples, beaches and sceneries have been one of the major highlights of their stay here. Not only that, there are loads of beautiful tourist places in India and the students have made full use of this opportunity to visit places like Goa, Andaman Islands, Kerala and enjoyed a lot.

“Learning the lifestyle and culture of this place adds another dimension to our knowledge.” As a parting note, Martin, another exchange student, says “XIMB is one of the best B schools of India. The members of IRC are very warm and welcoming and made our stay here really worthwhile. I made a lot of great friends here and I am glad to have come here and to be a part of XIMB.”