Businesses seek students with an analytics edge

NMIMS introduces predictive analytics into the curriculum, postgraduates become better prepared for career opportunities

NMIMS (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies) partnered with SAS^® to provide the kind of analytics skills that Indian companies are thirsting for. By using analytics tools in the classroom, NMIMS students have a sought-after credential in the increasingly data-driven world.

India’s leading business school is not only teaching analytics using SAS in its classrooms, it is also developing a center of excellence to explore innovation in analytics. It will be the first such center in India. “We have these kinds of arrangements in other sectors, such as engineering. Analytics is the sector for the next century,” says Sunil S. Shirvaiker, Associate Professor of Statistics.

Since introducing SAS to management and statistics students three years ago, the program has quadrupled in size, with approximately 90 students taking classes. Postgraduate students are getting job offers well before obtaining their advanced degrees. “The companies are quite happy with the talent, and the students get absorbed very quickly,” Shirvaiker says. “Big employers have been coming to us continuously on campus and picking our good students. Knowing SAS is a big plus.”

Shirvaiker says the key to the program’s growing popularity is that the students are learning statistics and software together – and learning about predictive analytics, a skill Indian companies are in particular need of. “Businesses want to know what will happen in the future. What kind of market shares can I have? How will a change in strategy impact my sales? Analytics professionals need to provide that decision support to top management.”

The institute was approached by other statistical analytics companies about forming a partnership, but NMIMS chose to work with SAS because of the breadth and depth of both the tools and support to higher education. Students can learn how to manage big data with business case studies that are relevant to what students will experience in the working world. “The students want that contemporary knowledge,” Shirvaiker says.

The center of excellence is still in the formative stages, but Shirvaiker explains the goal is to not just work with postgraduate students, but to also support professionals in the analytics field. “This will really help develop analytics for the future.”