(Photo credit: Alan Cleaver)

In perhaps the most significant leap by any Indian Institute of Management (IIM) ever, IIM Indore this week announced a five-year integrated management degree which will admit students directly after class XII in school. A Times of India story reports that the total tuition fees for this fully residential ‘integrated PGP’ will be Rs 19 lakhs.

“The five-year residential programme allows students to drop out after the degree course, designed to be a mix of essential skill subjects maths and statistics, history, literature and political science, biological sciences, languages, finance and accounting, economics and information technology. Apart from classroom lectures, IIM-I has a component on international exposure and an internship at a social organization.”

(Read the full story)

According to an FAQ on the IIM Indore website, lodging and boarding for the five years would cost an additional Rs 4 lakhs (approximately), taking the total expenditure to about Rs 23.2 lakhs. The course is expected to commence in October 2011 with an intake of 120 students.

Does management content worth five years even exist? Existing BBA and MBA programs have significant amount of common content, especially in the core subjects. Which is why IIM Indore appears to have designed the first three years around multidisciplinary subjects ranging from IT, biological sciences, literature and history. I am waiting more details about the course content, but prima facie this looks to me the most multidisciplinary undergraduate degree India has seen yet. We will cover this program more in detail in one of PaGaLGuY’s own stories soon.

Down south, IIM Bangalore has made summer internships optional for students with more than 34 months of pre-MBA work experience. According to The Economic Times,

“IIM-B has communicated the decision to its students. “We have taken the important decision and made internships optional for students who have worked for at least 34 months. Experienced students from earlier batches said they did not learn much more during the internships. We are now exploring options on engaging the students during these two months when no teaching takes place on the campus,” Sapna Agarawal, head of IIM-B career development services (CDS) told ET.”

Like implicitly assured placements, internships as an academic requirement too is a dominantly Indian phenomenon, presumably envisioned to force the largely fresher class to spend time in the industry for making more informed elective and employment choices. In top schools in the US, where four years of work experience is an eligibility constraint, internship isn’t a requirement and students spend the two to four months between the two years to either do more than one, often three internships across continents at one extreme or take a vacation without doing any work on the other.

An acquaintance who graduated from IIM Ahmedabad last year suggests that IIM Bangalore’s decision reflects more on the poor quality of internships doled out in India than it does about the importance of internships. He says that experienced students often find themselves in a situation where the summer project is significantly less challenging than their pre-MBA job. “This could be either because good projects for people with 5-6 years of experience just aren’t available in India, or because placement committees are too focused on securing projects for students at the median work experience (1 to 1.5 years in a typical IIM batch) and therefore not enough energy is spent on finding suitable opportunities for the older students.”

Recession still haunts

Financial Times has run two self-narrated accounts of Indians who have graduated from globally recognized MBA programs since 2008 and then have had to face hell making a career shift, something they hoped their MBA to allow them. The first one, a lady from Judge Business School, Cambridge University writes,

“While there is a belief that an MBA can open any door in business, the reality is that making a real career shift is hard, if for example, youre a lawyer who wants to become a trader, a journalist who wants to become a strategist or a human resources professional interested in private wealth management. While we all know the economic challenges we face, there are other hurdles such as your age, past work experience, ability to demonstrate quantitative skills etc. Do not listen to the people who tell you that your Graduate Management Admission Test score or your grades in your MBA dont matter, if you want to make real career shift, any tangible proof that youre a safe hiring bet is helpful.”

(Link to entire article)

The second one, a former business journalist from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad reflects,

Students approach business school with different philosophies but it all adds up to wanting to take a big step up in their career. I went to business school for exactly that reason, defining my need as getting a greater understanding of marketing, with subjects I considered to be cornerstones of successful business management accounting, finance and organisational behaviour. In that sense, studying at ISB was a resounding success. Ive learnt a lot and I believe Im well equipped to handle a business.

Unfortunately, despite all the hard yards I put in at school to ensure I cut the mustard as a marketing professional, prospective employers wanted hands-on experience. Never mind that for five years working as a business journalist, I interacted and learnt from some of the best minds in the business. Employer after employer decided that it wasnt worth their while hiring me in a downturn a risky hire.

(Link to entire article)

Accreditations need to adapt

A piece in the New York Times examines the state of b-school accreditation agencies such as the AASCB which are sought and coveted by b-schools worldwide. It makes an interesting point, that the rules that define ‘world class’ are too American in their foundations and accreditation agencies should adapt to accommodate the new growth models which have caused emerging b-schools in Europe and Asia gain global eminence. Quoting Theirry Grange, the Dean of Grenoble’s School of Management, France it says,

We have been American-o-centric for decades, said in an interview. Since 2000 you have had a revolution. Business education is booming, and more and more schools in China, Asia and Europe are saying We think we are a good institution. We would like to apply to become accredited. This aspect of globalization calls for a reconsideration of what we do, he said, adding that the American model of a business school inside a research university may not be appropriate for other cultures.

(Link to article)