Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur, was founded in 1949 by Fr Quinn Enright. It has become a centre of excellence in the field of management. But XLRI is a B-school with a difference. According to Fr E. Abraham, director of XLRI, Jamshedpur, “The difference lies in the focus of the premier school. We try to translate excellence through academic excellence, value excellence and social excellence. This means we not only concentrate on knowledge development, but also on personal, spiritual and social development. This integral and value-based formation impels a person to be an innovative, competent and creative leader.”

XLRI tries to inculcate social values and social awareness through social activities and village exposure programmes. The core course on business ethics plays an integral role in the formation of future managers with a strong moral character.

“Our flagship programmes — business management and personnel management —are designed to meet the changing needs of industry and the corporate world. We at XLRI offer quality programmes that equip the future managers with knowledge, skills, abilities and competency and enable them to contribute to the growth of the organisations.”

Sugandha Agnani, a human resources student at XLRI, currently doing her internship at ITC, food division, Bangalore, feels XLRI instils confidence in the students to face the challenges of the corporate world. She says what makes XLRI different is that the students can personally approach the professors to get all their queries answered.

XLRI offers two-year postgraduate programmes in business management (BM) and in personal management and industrial relations (PM&IR). The institute also lays emphasis on executive education. It has introduced courses like executive PG programme in management and executive fellow programme in management. In addition to this, a six-month executive programme for defence officers and 14-month satellite-based distance learning programme have also been started at XLRI. The fee for the business management course is Rs 3.06 lakh. One has to crack the XLRI Admission Test (XAT) to be eligible for admission.

XLRI has a good infrastructure. The academic block has air-conditioned lecture halls, an examination hall, computer centre and syndicate rooms, all of which have access to the campus-wide network. There are 12 state-of-the-art classrooms with multimedia presentation support. These classrooms also have facilities for recording, and playback of lecture sessions. The four syndicate rooms are multipurpose areas for academic exercises.

The computer centre has labs having latest servers for hosting various application, gateways intranet and proxy; a dedicated helpdesk service for software and hardware support for users; printing hub for centralised network printing from the hostel; and photocopying and scanning facilities. There are four hostels with more than 400 rooms in all. The hostels are equipped with phones, water filters and coolers. Every hostel has access points linking it with the local area network.

But XLRI is not all about work and no play. Equal emphasis is placed on the recreation of the students. According to Sudipto Dey, an XLRI student, “Studies are a priority but we need not invest all our time in it. There is a perfect balance between work and leisure.”

At XLRI, there are courts for tennis, basketball, volleyball, badminton and football. The new gymnasium has state-of-the-art facilities for indoor badminton and equipment for workouts and exercises. The students have access to swimming pools, squash courts and a synthetic athletics track — all within a very short radius of the campus — through affiliations with local sports authorities.

XLRI has also tied up with universities in the US, Europe, Australia, and Sweden. In 2007-08, four students from EM Lyon University, France, visited XLRI for a full semester. Twelve students from UAMS Belgium and Loyola University, Chicago, also visited XLRI as part of their study tour.

Fr E. Abraham says that as in the previous years, the demand from the corporate sector for students of XLRI’s PM&IR and BM programmes was far in excess of the number of students who were available for placement this year. A total of 298 offers were made to the graduating batch of 180 students. The highest domestic offer was Rs 28 lakh and the average domestic offer was Rs 14.75 lakh. There were 12 international offers at an average of $90,000 (approximately Rs 38,42,000).

Vital Statistics

WHAT IS IT? It is a B-school in Jamshedpur

WHO’S THE BOSS? Fr E. Abraham is the director

what is the course fee? The fee for a business management course is Rs 3.06 lakh per annum

Where is it? Circuit House Area (East), Jamshedpur-831035, Jharkhand Phone: 0657- 3983333, 0657-2227814 Website: www.xlri.ac.in

ANTARA SEN