“Capital University College believes in fostering young talent by giving students an international perspective and ideology to the industry. With internationally-acclaimed programmes, we allow students to analyse the major factors that influence human resource management such as cultural, political, economic, labour costs, and industrial relations.” Dr. Sanjay Batheja
Interviewer: Mariham Magdy
Brief Biography about the Interviewee:
Dr Sanjay Batheja is the Co-Founder and Director of Capital University College. He ventured into the education industry in 1998 with a vision to offer affordable, flexible and quality assured education to the UAE students. In line with this vision, Dr Batheja has successfully developed structured programs in the field of business, management HR, tourism and design and has guided students to win awards and ignite their entrepreneurial journey.
1.HR Revolution Middle East: Dr Batheja, welcome to HR Revolution Middle East Magazine. It’s a great pleasure to have the opportunity to make this interview with you.
Dr Batheja, as the Co-Founder and Director of Capital University College, would you please share with our readers how does Capital College offer unique programs as one of the distinct educational institutions in UAE?
Dr. Sanjay Batheja:
Thank you so much Ms. Magdy. It is indeed a pleasure to be part of this feature. Capital has been in the UAE’s education industry since 1998. Our humble beginnings saw us serving niche audiences such as women and young girls with programmes that were simply not present at that stage. Programmes such as Fashion Design, Interior Design and Makeup were not even close to popular. It was all about C++, Java and Ms Office. That’s where we started and saw a budding generation of proud, successful and confident women graduate from our facility. That’s where our journey began.
With almost 22 years in the education space, we have formed prestigious partnerships with international schools – North Wales Business School Glyndwr University UK, Westcliff University based in California and Italy’s Rome Business School that has the world’s 59th ranked MBA and its highly demanded Professional Master in Human Resource Management programmes. We also have a technical collaboration with London College of Arts, UK which has been a creative hub for over several students flocking in from over 42 countries. One of the reasons for partnering with these universities was to introduce international programs to our UAE students that have high accreditation and allow them to earn dual and triple qualification along with points from WES that can be beneficial when students plan to migrate to other countries.
2- HR Revolution Middle East: Dr. Batheja, you have trained over 1500 managers in the field of Human Resources and currently you run medium-sized colleges as well. How do you see technology impact the future of HR and L&D as well?
Dr. Sanjay Batheja:
Training individuals the traditional way means restricting oneself to a much narrower audience, maybe for those who can fit in the training room and repeating the same task again and again. Tech has and will continue to dramatically change the HR and L&D division. With some not so high-end equipment, some exceptionally talented trainers with clear criteria and outcomes, one can create a very solid training programme. With the modern LMS systems, the student can be exposed to drip learning and be assessed as they move along the modules of study and finally achieve all the outcomes to be certified. The best part is ‘economies of scale.’ There is no end to the number of learners who can go through the same course over a long period. ‘Consistency of outcomes’ is another huge benefit – even learners enrolled at different times will have the same experience every single time.
Case in point, Capital being a college, our Classrooms too have moved to flipped models instead of traditional models; where the new content is introduced online using video and students meet in class for Q&A and discussions. This increases ‘Student-Centred learning’ and in effect ‘student engagement’, ‘collaboration’ and ‘self-discovery’.
3- HR Revolution Middle East: Considering the challenges faced in 2020 due to covid-19; how has the pandemic shaped the HR industry? What positive aspects can we focus on from the lessons learnt from covid-19?
Dr. Sanjay Batheja:
During the pandemic, people moved away from the 9-5 grind and replaced workspace with home offices which surprisingly increased productivity as they were in the comfort zones rather than being in constant fear in their respective work stations. Although different companies have had diverse experiences on how the covid-19 impacted the HR industry, this is the time when professionals and experts of the industry were challenged to introduce strategies and new blueprint that will not compromise the quality of work and neither turns a deaf ear to employee management and satisfaction. Also, I believe this was truly a testing time where many corporations took this as an opportunity to show how much they believed, trusted and cared for their employees which in turn only increased employee happiness, reflecting directly in the company’s revenues.
On the flip side, the pandemic has given HR a new perspective on how to look at their valuable assets and how its priorities on importance changed. First, from HR as a profit centre, it moved to the health and safety of its employees as its prime importance. Second, the realisation has set in that remote work was possible and in fact, all KPIs ranked higher, so now they know they never really needed to ‘parent’ their employees. They also discovered that employees could come up with intelligent decisions, especially when they were on reduced or no monitoring. Third, the need for innovation was identified as a priority. And finally having an agile workforce that could move at pace was seen as very important by the HR.
4- HR Revolution Middle East: What expectations do you have for the return of Human Resource Management – post-pandemic in 2021?
Dr. Sanjay Batheja:
My expectation is that the HR in post-pandemic incorporates the new normal in its day-to-day. Some of the ideas and strategies implemented during the pandemic may be chosen to carry forward due to its positive results. According to a survey released by Bayt.com, it was revealed that employees preferred to work from home and over 50% of the companies have a contingency plan as a precautionary measure in case a second wave of the pandemic hits the Middle Eastern region. Therefore, it wouldn’t be surprising to see companies take this ahead into the post-pandemic world.
Considering that uncertainty is prevailing irrespective of the industry one is in, there is a high possibility of HR teams to resort to temporary or short-contract workers rather than committing to full-time employment. Also, I believe the industry is rapidly advancing by adopting and adapting to tech-tools. It would be safe to say that the industry will be hugely dominated by digitization used for communication, coordination, recruitment that can potentially even replace business travel. Overall, HR is successfully embracing technology to improve the industry and its supporting aspects.
5- HR Revolution Middle East: How does Capital University College consider offering an updated HR Programs curriculum including the latest trends in the HR sector due to the recent challenges?
Dr. Sanjay Batheja:
With the HR industry revolutionizing towards adapting tech-tools to enhance its performance, build accuracy and flexibility, our programmes are well-rounded with the right blend of academia and professional experience. Along with having professors who have a strong academic background, we also invite industry experts who have contributed significantly to the industry. This way, students bank on academic data as well get a corporate angle into their postgraduate studies. Along with this, we have included industry visits and tours for students to get real-time experience and knowledge of the industry which we are hoping to resume once things slowly settle down. Although obsolescence cannot be completely surpassed, these are some effective ways that can give students relevant knowledge and help them develop the necessary skills that will make them future HR assets of leading organizations and the overall HR sector.
6- HR Revolution Middle-East: To what extent do you believe HR professionals nowadays must consider the international perspective of their studies? How does Capital University College strengthen international exposure for her students?
Dr. Sanjay Batheja:
Capital University College believes in fostering young talent by giving students an international perspective and ideology to the industry. With internationally-acclaimed programmes, we allow students to analyse the major factors that influence human resource management such as cultural, political, economic, labour costs, and industrial relations.
Through our partnership with Rome Business School, we offer a Professional Master in Human Resource Management which is a one-year rigorous programme where students delve-deeper into the finite specialisations. Students are exposed to real-time topics, nuances and challenges with relevant case studies and are expected to suggest potential solutions, thereby, making them job-ready. Our programmes have the right balance of theory and practice which is an essential element in an industry like Human Resource. Students after the successful completion of the programme are eligible for triple qualification – a Master in HRM from Rome Business School, one from Valencia International University and a postgraduate diploma in HR from the UK, making this a truly international and valued qualification. Students get to learn both the British as well as European context of Human Resources.
Additionally, Capital University College hosts the #guruTalks where we invite senior leaders in HR to speak on pressing topics to the students. Also once the pandemic is settled, we will be taking the students to Rome for a week-long trip hosted by the RBS where the school takes them across companies in Rome and gets them to experience the European HR market.
7- HR Revolution Middle East: What final tips would you give to HR and L&D professionals at the beginning of 2021 with all the apprehensions and fears they have for the new wave of covid-19?
Dr. Sanjay Batheja:
Pandemic has given us a new vision and sensibility. The focus of HR should be to develop an agile workforce with an adaptable skill set. Recruitment should be divided with focus on independent contract workers and outsource day-to-day HR tasks to electronic means than in person. Focus on developing more apt technology that would assist the workforce in time of a possible new wave. L&D team should focus on upskilling the team with new technology and more importantly developing communication skills between remote teams or workers.
THANK YOU