Rail academy to award MBA degree to railway officers

In a step towards setting up the country's first Railway university, an MoU will be signed between the National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR) here and the Maharaja Sayajirao University to award MBA degrees to rail employees in various fields like accounts and personnel on Wednesday.

NAIR, the apex training institute for imparting training to railway officers, has been selected for upgradation as a full-fledged Railway University as part of efforts to enhance the skills of railway officers.

It is envisioned that Railway University, when set up, would act as an affiliating University. Five other premier Central Training Institutes of the Railways at Pune, Nasik, Jamalpur, Secunderabad and Lucknow, which train officers of various specific disciplines in the Railways, would be affiliated as constituent colleges.

As a measure of enhancing professional management education in the railway field to the Probationary Officers, it was decided that NAIR shall tie-up with Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara for awarding MBA degree in specific Railway fields to Indian Railway Accounts Service, Indian Railway Personnel Service and Indian Railway Store Service officers, said a senior Railway Ministry official. 

The MoU will be signed by Union Minister Suresh Prabhu and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani here. This was ratified earlier by the academic council and Senate of MS University.

Railway probationary officers, currently trained at NAIR, will study and obtain MBA degree from the University with specialisation in respective fields such as Finance, Human Resource Management, Production and Operations Management and Marketing Management. The tie-up also enables MS University to select students at their end for MBA along with Railway officers. These students will also be awarded MBA degrees. He said it would also serve the requirements of railway-related infrastructural construction contractors, suppliers, Metros and Port Railways.