Rourkela, July 11: The Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) has made changes in its MBA curriculum keeping in view the dynamism of the corporate world and the need to make students employer-friendly.

When BPUT vice-chancellor Shyam Sunder Pattnaik took charge, he had said: "To make our graduates marketable, the first step is gradual revamping and restructuring of all the syllabi."

The first major changes are now visible in the MBA syllabus. "As we had promised, we have changed the MBA syllabus, which was introduced last year," said director, curriculum, Parthasarathi Sarkar. The changes only came into effect this year, as the first two semesters have no syllabus changes.

In the first and second semesters, the students will learn the basics in eight and nine papers, respectively, without many changes.

Earlier, there used to be 32 papers. The syllabus now has 30, with the possibility of the number of papers lessening further, said a university insider. Another senior faculty member Sreekumar said: "This is a good sign for all, both for the faculty and students, as the course structure is more dynamic."

"Earlier, there were two papers in each stream of marketing, finance and HR. Now, they have been clubbed together, cutting off unnecessary flab with less pressure in the third and fourth semesters."

In comparison to the earlier syllabus, "the current work load has been made more front loaded", said a faculty member of a local B-school Santosh K. Biswal. He explained: "The final semester has been made less demanding as the students will be appearing for only five papers."

"The concept of dual specialisation has been done away with and now there will be major and minor specialisation," said Biswal. The VC had earlier said: "Unless students know what the market needs and are ready for it, how they will be placed?"

The university has introduced a new specialisation in agri-business. "Agriculture marketing is gaining importance with major corporates getting into it," said Sarkar.

Along with that, strategic finance management, employment legislation in HR, inventory management, data mining for business intelligence and network security have been introduced in IT specialisation and some old concepts have been done away with.

Earlier, the students had one business environment exposure during the summer internship programme.

Under the new curriculum, they will have another programme in the fourth semester. "In the summer programme, the students are exposed to the environment and organisation, and in the second one, they will work in live business projects for two months," said Biswal.

Sweta Das, who is pursuing her MBA in Bhubaneswar, said: "There is more scope for practical exposure, but the varsity should also give details of the books to be followed."