KIIT School of Management (KSOM) kick-started this year’s academic session with the Annual Faculty Development Program from 21st – 25th June 2021. The school-level theme of the program was ‘Aligning teaching, learning, research and student development with emerging needs of the economy’. It aimed at renewing the five dimensions of our nature – physical, spiritual, mental, social and emotional. Besides FDPs conducted from time to time round the year, an annual FDP is organized with contemporary themes to enable faculty members to experience relevant dimensions of renewal.
The themes for 2021 would enable faculty members to experience renewal concerning all dimensions of our nature considering large-scale changes in the education landscape. The five-day program featured 15 sessions, each centred on a contemporary theme, taken by eminent resource persons.
On the inaugural day, three sessions were conducted on ‘The changing business landscape and emerging graduate attributes’, ‘The changing education landscape and emerging research opportunities’ and ‘The emerging graduate attributes and need for behaviour modification’ by Prof. S. K. Mahapatra, Prof. H. Mohanty, VC, KIIT-DU and Prof. Surya Mishra respectively. The second day session included ‘Integrating Business Economics with other disciplines for decision- making’, ‘Integrating Financial Management with other disciplines for decision-making’ and ‘Integrating Financial Accounting with other disciplines for decision-making’. They were taken by Prof. Praveen Mohanty; CA Govind Maheswari, CFO – Bajaj Energy Ltd.; and Mr. Bisworanjan Sutar, Assurance Partner-SRB & Associates respectively.
Mr. Rishi Rajan Sharma, Sr. Systems Engineer, FireEye Technologies conducted a session on ‘Cyber Security- Staying Safe while Staying Connected’ on the third day of the FDP. Two other sessions on ‘Using Social Media skills for student development and brand building’ and ‘Integrating Operations Management with other disciplines for decision-making’ were conducted by Prof. Sugato Tripathy and Dr. Asish K. Panda, Associate Professor, NALSAR respectively. The resource persons for the fourth day sessions on ‘Integrating Human Resource Management with other disciplines for decision-making’, ‘Integrating Decision Science with other disciplines for decision-making’ and ‘Integrating Marketing Management with other disciplines for decision-making’ were Ms. Bobby Patnaik, Head-HR, Infosys, Mr. Gautam Mathur, Global Director – Data and Analytics at Diageo and Mr. Digvijay Ghosh, Principal, Accenture respectively.
On the concluding day of the FDP, sessions on ‘Using ICT for improving efficiency, quality and students responsiveness’, ‘Developing a Vibrant Research Ecosystem’, and ‘Value-based Professional Education: A Mindful Strategy & Heartful Movement’ were conducted by Prof. Mohar Banerjee, Dr Vijaylakshmi Balasubramanium, Professor- Institute for Financial Management and Research and Prof. Sasmita Samanta, Pro-VC, KIIT respectively.
In general, the Faculty Development Program led to improved understanding of the changing education landscape considering the new education policy, digital transformation of businesses and emerging knowledge bases. It integrated knowledge from fundamental and functional domains for business-level decision making. It will help faculty members to develop an effective learning plan for students as well as to develop research plans capitalising on their own competencies and emerging opportunities.