Established in the year 1962 by the great philanthropist and industrialist, Shri. Karumuttu Thiagarajan Chettiar, Thiagarajar School of Management (TSM) has been imparting professional education to managers who have a burning desire to scale up their career potential with better managerial skills. This 62-year-old institute is located in the heart of Madurai city, in a lush green 17- acre campus..
The institute began an Executive Development Program (EDP) with the purpose of enabling managers and entrepreneurs in Madurai and nearby areas to hone their skills and make them more efficient and productive. The EDP was a roaring success, with profuse accolades pouring in from the industry; this provided the requisite stimulus to launch the MBA course in 1972 as a part-time program. The full-time MBA program was introduced in 1986 which grew very popular rapidly among aspiring managers.
Today, the institute offers MBA and PGDM programs which are approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), New Delhi. The UGC and Madurai Kamaraj University have conferred the status of autonomous in 2010. Students can apply for admission to TSM by taking Management exams namely CAT, MAT, CMAT, XAT, or TANCET. There is no capitation fee, and the entire fee structure is uniform and transparent. In addition, it offers PGDDSBA, a one-year programme certified by Madurai Kamaraj University, to support the working professionals and fresh graduates who are interested to make their career in the business analytics domain. To facilitate the participation from industry, the sessions are delivered at the weekends. Further, it also offers a PhD programme affiliated to Alagappa University.
To equip the students to take on the competition during placements, students at TSM are provided hands-on training in various business operations across industry verticals. By fostering strong bonds with industry leaders, the institution is in a position to provide excellent summer internships to students. The rich experience they gain at the corporate houses has helped the students get plum jobs – and even receive multiple offers in campus recruitment drives.
With a firm belief in holistic education, the institute not only offers a dynamic course curriculum but also inculcates life skills employing the appropriate pedagogies and andragogies. The institute has an excellent ratio of faculty to students; most faculty members hold degrees and doctorates from eminent institutions. They have the expertise and the ability to provide exceptional training in both theoretical and practical aspects in addition to guiding them efficiently in their research and consultancy training.
The Thiagarajar School of Management was established by Shri. Karumuttu Thiagaraja Chettiar, a visionary entrepreneur and benevolent philanthropist. His patronage of arts led him to be referred to by the sobriquet “Kalaithanthai”, meaning “Father of Arts”, and he was popularly called Karumuttu. Born in 1893, he completed his education partly in India, and partly in erstwhile Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where he embarked on his professional career as an assistant editor in the Ceylon English Daily “Morning Leader”. His leadership qualities came to the fore, when outraged at the unfair working conditions of Tamil laborers, he took it upon himself to fight for improving their lives. He wrote a series of articles, and even published a book “Indian Immigrant on Ceylon Estates”. His relentless efforts at the age of 22 eventually compelled the Government to agree to his demands – which is one of his significant achievements and he did not stop there. In 1916, he returned to his motherland and contributed to the Freedom Struggle by joining the Congress the following year; he was made the President of the Labour Wing.
Service to Education is Service to God
His ambitious nature didn’t allow him to rest on his laurels and so he embarked on his entrepreneurship journey with the establishment of the Meenakshi Mills Ltd. in Madurai in 1921 – the first of 18 textile mills. His business acumen helped him to acquire sugar factories, and the reputed firm of P.ORR & Sons Pvt. Ltd in Chennai. Not content with his achievements, he ventured into banking and insurance – Bank of Madura and Madura Insurance. The print media being his first career, he also started a newspaper – Tamil Nadu
Shri. Karumuttu Thiagaraja Chettiar met Sri Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan in Kolkata, where he had gone on a business matter. Tagore inspired him to give back to society; this was the beginning of his philanthropic journey. He established numerous charitable trusts: Thiagarajar Endowment in 1944, Thiagarajar Dharma Vanigam in 1948, Thiagarajar College Endowment Trust in 1951, the Thiagarajar Charities in 1962, and Thiagarajar Educational Trust. In memory of his wife, he founded the Visalakshi Kalasalai – a school in his hometown, A.Thekkur in Sivagangai district, in 1959. It was inaugurated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India at that time. His proactive thinking and ability to visualize the future led him to realize the need for professionally trained and efficient managers. Just a few years later, Shri. Karumuttu Thiagaraja Chettiar established the Thiagarajar School of Management in 1962.
A leading academic institution of choice amongst management students and faculty and employers alike, respected for grooming ethical managerial and entrepreneurial leadership through high-quality teaching, training and research.
To promote wide application of professional management principles, practices and attitudes in the management of economic and social institutions, primarily through teaching, training, research and consultancy.
To groom young men and women into technically proficient, managerially competent, and socially purposeful professionals deeply committed to upholding and practicing the highest standards of probity.
To help transform entrepreneurial ideas into scalable and sustainable economic and social institutions.
To promote responsible leadership by seamlessly weaving ethical values, social dimensions and long-term sustainability into all aspects of its activities and academic programmes.
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