An open letter from the Pro-VC and Dean , School of Business

Posted on 05/31/2012

Dear Students,

On behalf of faculty, staff and administration of GU, I look forward to welcoming you in the upcoming academic year.  I am excited about joining the GU faculty and administration as the Dean of the School of Business and the Pro Vice-Chancellor of the university. I hope that, overall, your first year experience at GU has been good. At GU, I would like to assure you that a strong vision to make it a globally known institution for multidisciplinary research and education is taking roots. When you return to start the next academic year, from hopefully a great summer, you will find a number of new programs, facilities and curricular enhancements. You will also find several new faculty with high academic achievements have joined GU from all over the world.

The early graduates like you will represent GU as socially responsible and globally competitive future technologists and business leaders with good communication and problem solving skills and an entrepreneurial spirit to drive economic development. In the upcoming year, you will benefit from the opportunities to learn from faculty experts and participate in research projects.  With personalized attention to your career goals and aspirations, GU will ensure that your path to the next phase of professional life is supported well. Indeed, your efforts in maintaining high academic and integrity standards will be critical not only for your professional success but also for GU to rise as a global leader in higher education.

I am delighted to join the visionary Chancellor Suneel Galgotia and a team of talented and accomplished scholars to lay the foundations for GU to be a world class institution of higher learning. Complementing the cutting edge curricula will be study abroad opportunities at institutions of repute like Goethe University in Germany and Purdue University Calumet in the USA.

Business Curriculum: A Focus on Business Analytics

GU School of Business will continue to build on existing curricular foundations and create distinctiveness along several dimensions. First, both BBA and MBA curricula will have a strong focus on “business analytics”.  Both quantitative and qualitative analytical approaches will be an extensive part of several core and elective courses in the program. Second, areas of leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation and managing diversity will add critical competencies for graduates to succeed in a global economy. Third, the delivery of the curriculum will be based on pedagogical approaches that will rely significantly on action based learning methods like simulations, case studies and real business problem solving. Fourth, several courses in the program will be integrative (i.e. cut across disciplinary boundaries).  Overall, you will find the program to be both intellectually challenging and highly relevant to developing competencies much sought after by industry. 

Talented Faculty and Industry Leaders help Deliver High Quality Business Programs

Delivering on this promise of cutting edge curricula requires support from several stakeholders, foremost of which is faculty. We are delighted that the GU School of Business is continuing to build on the excellent group of current faculty and has attracted new faculty talent from across the globe. Experts with degrees from highly rated Universities like the University of Connecticut (USA), Iowa State University (USA), University of Memphis (USA), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA), University of Chicago (USA), University of Iowa (USA), University of California, Irvine (USA), National University of Singapore (Singapore), University of Siena (Italy), and Clark University (USA) have either already joined or are in the process of joining and have expressed strong interest in contributing their expertise to GU.

Another stakeholder group that will play an important role in the success of School of Business programs at GU is the corporate leaders.  We will soon embark on efforts to build an Advisory Board of industry leaders from global organisations.  You will realize the benefit of this focus on corporate partnerships as they will provide experiential learning projects, internships, and full time employment opportunities for you.

As we begin a new academic year, I welcome you to share my excitement about shaping the future of GU. We will benchmark our academic and professional achievements with the best in the world for which we need your support.  With our commitment to support a student centric culture, your voice will be heard.  Please provide us feedback on how we can make an exceptional educational experience for you even better.

My faculty colleagues from the School of Business join me in wishing you a great year.

If you have any feedback regarding the academics, Curriculum or any other query please feel free to mail me at profbalaji@galgotiasuniversity.edu.in

 

Best wishes.

Sincerely --

Balaji Rajagopalan, Ph.D

Pro-Vice Chancellor

Dean, School of Business

Profile of Dr. Balaji Rajagopalan

Pro Vice Chancellor Galgotias University & Dean, School of Business

Dr. Rajagopalan received his MS and PhD degrees from the University of Memphis, Tennessee in the USA in 1992 and 1999 respectively in Management Information Systems. He is a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering graduate of Andhra University which he received in 1988.  He served as Associate Dean in the School of Business at Oakland University from February 2010 for over two years. He was honored as the Stinson Leadership Fellow in 2010.  Prior to his appointment as Associate Dean, he served in the roles of Director of Graduate Business Programs and Director of Executive MBA program at Oakland University.  Dr. Rajagopalan also held faculty appointments at Illinois State University and Southern Arkansas University. Dr. Rajagopalan has received numerous awards and distinctions in his academic career. At Illinois State University, he received the Outstanding Performance in Scholarly Productivity Award (1997) and the Faculty of the year in Business Information Systems award in 1998.  During his tenure at Oakland University, Dr. Rajagopalan was awarded the Summer Research Fellowship by the School of Business Administration in 2001 and the University Research Fellowship in 2002. He received the prestigious New Investigator Research Excellence Award at Oakland University in 2002.  This award is given annually to only one tenure track faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in research and scholarship at the University.  In 2003, he was recognized by the Board of Trustees at Oakland University for his scholarly research accomplishments.  He was recognized with the Research Professor Award from 2004-2007 in the School of Business Administration at Oakland University.  Notably, his research paper in the premier academic journal -- Information Systems Research received the 2007 Best Published Paper award. Dr. Rajagopalan was nominated twice by students for the Teaching Excellence Award in 2002 and 2005.Dr. Rajagopalan has made significant contributions to management information systems research, particularly in the areas of virtual communities and open source software. His research papers have appeared in several journals including Information Systems Research, Communications of the ACM, IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics, Decision Support Systems and over 25 conference proceedings. As the Co-Principal Investigator, he received a research grant of US $500,000 from the National Science Foundation (2002-05) and US $30,000 Michigan Entrepreneurship Education Network (MEEN), 2003.  He serves as a reviewer for premier academic journals in management information systems and is the Senior Editor of the Journal of Information Technology: Theory and Applications. Dr. Rajagopalan has worked with several Fortune 500 companies on research projects, consulting or advisory services. As part of his research/consulting activities, he has interacted with several firms including Daimler Chrysler, EDS, Covansys, Thomson-Gale, Kelly Services, Handleman, Cap-Gemini, PWC, EMC, GM, Ford, St. Joseph Mercy, Beaumont Hospitals, & ITC Infotech.