Course choices at IPADE, Mexico
Indrani Chakraverty
Dear Madam,
Hope you are doing good. We are glad to inform you that all of us have
safely reached IPADE, Mexico without much hassle.
This is regarding the credit
requirements communicated to us for the exchange program 2013. We need to submit our final course choices by end of 11th January 2013 and thus request you to look into this urgently.
First and foremost, we are sure you
will appreciate that every business school has its own fundamental pedagogy and
set of ethos by which it functions. IPADE is a top ranked university and it
shows eminently in its rigor, its pedagogy and overall functioning. We have
attached an Excel Sheet which lists courses that we are being offered from
IPADE in this trimester. It also has details about the number of contact hours,
independent hours, ECTS Credits, course contents, etc. We would request you to
kindly go through it once.
1. Here in IPADE, they strictly follow the Case based methodology. Hence, the
course and credit system is designed so that students have enough time for
Individual study + Team Work + Case discussions in class. Please find attached a
formal time table given to us, that mentions slots for each one of them.
2. As per IPADE, the exchange students need to opt for just 5-6 courses in this
trimester. For students of IPADE, 6-7 courses are required. We have attached the
Excel Sheet which has the name of the courses, contact and independent hours.
If we use the 7 hours = 1 ECTS credit rule here in IPADE, we need to take a
minimum of 8 to 9 courses (see attachment 2), spending more than 125 hours total in addition to around 20 hours on language course!
Now this seems absurd even to the administration of IPADE and they recommend us
to talk to our university as it can get a lot strenuous in the weeks to come.
3. We have to take the Spanish course here for our own survival. It will have
classes 4-5 days a week. With this, it eventually will leave very less time for
any self-study.
4. We have another course called "Doing Business in Emerging
Markets", it is a complete one week intensive course. And it is mandatory
for us. So we will have to go for this 6 ECTS credits course without a choice.
Though it offers 21 contact hours (3 IMT Credits), if you re-consider this
course with the independent hours (maximum of all in the list, 53 hours), it
accounts to 6 ECTS Credits. This actually accounts to 74 hours to be dedicated
to this course in just a week's time. This i am sure will give you an insight
so as to how much work is needed in IPADE and their course is designed
according to international standards (ECTS) keeping both the contact and study
hours in mind.
We request you to kindly look into this issue, as this is proving to be greatly
disadvantageous to us. Please find attached herewith :
1. Our detailed course syllabus, credit and contact hours details for each of the courses being offered at IPADE.
2. A sample course selection with details of IMT credits as well. (Minimum 8 subjects selected to complete IMT credit requirement)
3. Sample
formal time table that mentions slots for each study component including
individual study, teamwork, case discussions
Keeping in view the international standardization practice
of using the ECTS Credit system where I ECTS Credit = 1 IMT Credit, we request
you to relax the 7 hours = IMT credit rule. This will allow us to take up 5 to
6 subjects which we want to study in addition to the language course (which has
4 to 6 classroom hours per week) and complete credit requirements of both
institutions, while ensuring our performance is robust.
Thanks a lot.
Regards,
IMTians at IPADE, Mx
