AN ENTHRALLING EXPERIENCE AT UBS DURING THE PANDEMIC

By: Priyanka Agrawal                                 Batch: CMBA2Y3

It was a beautiful Sunday at Universal Business School, Karjat. As usual all the students were celebrating their Sunday with lazy lunch hours. Diverse groups of students were chatting among themselves about the pandemic that hit the world few days ago. As soon as the lunch was done, everybody received and email by the chairman stating that the college would remain closed due to the safety measures and everybody would have to move to their respective places. All the students reached their homes safely within 4-5 days. The world became silent amid the chaos of Covid-19. Weeks passed being home and we started missing our beautiful UBS.

Then came the time for UBS to showcase its strengthening strategies to keep its students refurbished and elite. UBS tried its level best to give the real time experience of learning for all its students even during the tough times of world pandemic. While I talk about my personal experience with UBS during these times of crisis, I must say it has been perplexing in terms of skill building, knowledge enhancement, regular practice and what not. We had to do our internships in the organizations which were previously brought by the placement team of UBS but due to unprecedented times they got abandoned. The team strived hard yet again and provided 100% virtual internships to entire cohorts of 2019-20 batch.

Then began the seamless experience of online classes that delivered the lectures to students sitting at their homes. This was a proactive initiative by UBS in order to maintain synchronous learning. The onset of online learning was difficult in the beginning and was hard to accept since we were practicing class-room learning from so many years. Initially it was very difficult for everyone to get regulated to this. It was a trouble time for not just the students but also the faculty members. UBS didn't leave any chance to build perfection since all the faculties were trained accordingly and the students were made apprehensive of the same.

From the beginning it was a roller coaster experience because we, the second year students had a lot of things going on along with the UBS online classes. Soon after the completion of the internships the full-fledged classes began for some 4 hours per day. But during this duration of pandemic, the corporate and industry knowledge was not held back. the corporate relations team always try to be in touch with the industry mentors and various distinguished personalities and bought them over these online platforms so that they share their intensified knowledge across all the sectors of the industry. Till today I enjoy every guest session that comes from these notable and prominent people.

UBS also made an attempt to have an automated ERP System for its beloved students to make things easy. This system helps us with every minute procedure from the subject notes, assignments, quizzes to the payment of fees. It has been handling this crisis very systematically and strategically. The proactive approach has been very lucrative for everyone. The only difference that has come across our lives is that we are not familiarizing a campus life but a full-fledged & coetaneous virtual experience. The pandemic make might have stopped the actual human interaction but has not stopped us from learning and assimilating the knowledge to comprehend our bright futures. The point of view underlying into this is the judicious approach made by UBS to keep delivering the undisturbed curve of learning towards its students which is much appreciated.