Students of Chandragupt Institute of Management, Patna, celebrate their convocation on Wednesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Shilpi Verma claimed that the only challenge for her alma mater, Chandragupt Institute of Management, Patna, was the lack of a permanent campus.

The finance management passout, who has bagged a job in National Dairy Development Board (Services) in Jaipur, was one of the 47 students who got their degrees on Wednesday during the fourth convocation ceremony of the institute.

She said: “Our institute has all the qualities to become one of the top management hubs of the country. Its placement record and faculty are very good. But the CIMP is still functioning out of a temporary campus (at Chajjubagh). Once it shifts to the permanent campus at Mithapur, it will be able to expand and offer more facilities to students.”

Shilpi’s concern is not her alone; the government, too, is looking into it. State chief secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha, while addressing the convocation ceremony, said: “We are taking all possible steps to complete the construction of the CIMP campus at the earliest. The chief minister has ordered to initiate the second phase of the construction while the first phase is going on.”

CIMP executive committee chairman Sinha added that the institute was the state’s answer to the IIMs.

Despite functioning out of a temporary campus, the institute has been able to provide placement to all the passouts this year.

Rajiv Ranjan, who had graduated from the Directorate of Distant Education of Patna University, bagged the gold medal for academic excellence at CIMP this year. With an offer of Rs 6.5 lakh from National Dairy Development Board (Services), New Delhi, the jubilant youth said: “My father is a farmer. Studying at the CIMP has changed my life.”

Delivering the convocation address, KRS Murthy, chairman, Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, advised the management graduates to combine their theoretical training with life experiences to become successful managers.

“Indian managers are yet to make their mark in the world of management internationally,” he added.