Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and IIT Delhi are revisiting their admission criteria for MBA from the next academic year. While IIT Kanpur is considering barring freshers, IIT Delhi is looking at revising its eligibility criteria from 10+2+4 to 10+2+3. We dig in for more details.

IIT Kanpur’s department of industrial and management engineering (IME) is ruminating over the idea of revamping its management programme. It is planning to close the doors for candidates who don’t have prior work experience. “The reason why such a decision is being deliberated over is because freshers lack practical knowledge and can’t visualise the responsibilities that come with a managerial position,” said Prof BV Phani, faculty of finance and entrepreneurship, IME. “Our objective is to provide students with the best possible management exposure/education so that they learn and understand the process. Students view the management programmes of IITs as secondary, as compared to the IIMs, and stop-gap arrangements. This has resulted in a disconnect between the students and faculty,” he said on being asked why the eligibility criteria was being revised. The prerequisites that IME is looking at is two years of work experience for candidates who have worked in the sector of their specialisation, and 4-5 years of work experience for those who have worked in a sector different from their area of specialisation. The institute is also looking at making the course more engineering-centric. “We intend to make the students undertake R&D; projects in the campus, while simultaneously pursuing advanced engineering courses, so that they understand the projects well,” he added.

“This will enable a student to leverage the opportunities available in the engineering domain and apply this knowledge into his management expertise,” Prof Phani said. He also said that the idea behind these changes is to create a Chief Innovation Officer, who can function in the entire vertical of the organisation, and can contribute from the conceptualisation of a product to its development, and then its marketing. “We want to create innovation managers who can bring about a societal change in any given area, be it engineering, social or political,” he said.

The department is also looking at reducing the number of seats and faculty expansion. Even the placement process might undergo a change. For that there will be a series of interactions with organisations, following which students can work on company projects and develop products visualised by the company while studying at IME. “We want to re-write the MBA paradigm,” Prof Phani said. On being asked how long would it take to execute/implement these sweeping changes, he said the process would take at least 12-18 months. The academic review at the department level would be completed in a couple of months, after which it would be taken to the institute level, then to the Dean of Academic Affairs and finally, to the Senate for approval.

Meanwhile, Department of Management Studies (DMS), IIT Delhi is going the other way round. It is planning to do away with the current 10+2+4 eligibility criteria and instead revise it to 10+2+3 with a few prerequisites, such as a work experience of two years and Maths as a subject in Class XII and graduation. “We want to give a chance to everyone who is competent and capable, which is why alterations in the eligibility criteria are being considered,” according to Professor MP Gupta, admissions co-ordinator, DMS, IIT Delhi. “Many sectors are coming into prominence such as health care, media, banking, infrastructure, real estate, finance, etc., which require a variety of professionals coming in from different backgrounds,” he added. The decision to extend the admission criteria to accommodate well-deserving candidates is in its earlier stages as the entire process goes through various bodies. “Firstly, the management department makes a proposal, which is then sent to the Board of Post-Graduate studies, which in turn, examines the proposals and recommends it to the Senate, which takes the final call,” Prof Gupta explained. The decision to expand the eligibility criteria might come into effect by 2013, he said.

There are plans to restructure the course as well. As of now, it is a three-tier curriculum; the core course which is mandatory and entails subjects like the fundamentals of management, principles of management, etc.; the electives, which is optional and in the chosen functional area such as information technology (IT), marketing, human resources, etc.; the third is the focus of the programme, which is again mandatory and offers MBA in telecom management, MBA in technology management and MBA in management system (general management). “In its revamped version, contemporary management practices will be merged with the subjects under the core courses. Plus, there will be an increase in the number of focus areas such as health care management, media management, real estate management, public sector management, etc.,” Prof Gupta said.