In the years gone by, IIMs were referred to just ‘A’B’C’ depending on the city of location, namely Ahmedabad, Bangalore or Calcutta. The acronym stretched to BLACKI, when IIMs sprang up in Lucknow, Kozhikode and Indore. Some more at Shillong, Ranchi, Raipur and Rohtak and the hunt for the new acronym started. Now, there is Trichy expected to begin operations soon and there are talks about IIMs in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.
What do so many IIMs mean? Do we need them? Will the IIM seal of excellence maintain itself or will more of them only dilute the erstwhile brand. That in totality IIMs is offering 2650 seats is not as important as to what these seats mean to the rest of the higher education system.
Pagalguy spoke to a few experts in the industry to find out.
Governments job
Heads of non-IIM institutes say that it is a pre-conceived notion that government is the last say when it comes to school, college or higher education in India. According to Prof Dr Suresh Ghai, director with KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, the idea to have so many IIMs stems from the fact that the government thinks it can do the best job in education. Whether it is the case of so many politicians starting educational institutions or the government itself starting institutes, in India the government thinks that it can run the education system better than any private party.
Agreeing with the sentiment, Dr Sunil Rai, dean and executive director of Mumbai Business School says that in India the government does have an upper hand when it comes to educational avenues. Take for instance government jobs or education loans. If you take admission in a government college or institute, more chances your education loan will get passed. Same with government jobs, more chances you will get a government job if you have graduated from a government institute. The same applies to securing jobs in government firms post MBA. So naturally government run institutes like IIMs have their pull.
Dr Rai adds that more IIMs can also be attributed to the fact that MBA takers have increased today than say even five years ago. If more b-schools have come up everywhere, it is only logical that more IIMs will also come up.
Prof Sougata Ray, dean at IIMC told Pagalguy that in fact more IIMs should come up because they definitely do a far better job than many other b-schools. Management education imparted by the IIMs is of the best quality and this only means that other institutes have to come up to the standards set by IIMs. With more IIMs there is pressure on other institutes to do well.
Ray added that more IIMs will also signal the downtrend of those b-schools that exist only to make some quick money without talking about actual education.
Pressure on existing IIMs
The opening up of so many new IIMs definitely means extra pressure on the existing IIMs. From faculty to resource sharing, the older IIMs are taking on the load of the newer ones. IIML for instance has been given the task of grooming IIM Rohtak and IIMC has been assigned IIM Ranchi. IIMI will mentor IIM Raipur.
This arrangement makes little sense given the fact that there is already a huge faculty crunch not only among IIMs but also most other MBA institutes in the country. And not only faculty but good faculty is also not easily and readily available.
The IIMs do not agree on this point however. Prof. Himanshu Rai, CAT 2010 Convenor and faculty at IIML argued that in fact mentoring an institute is no pressure at all. We can take up mentoring of yet another IIM if needed, besides IIM Rohtak. We have 80-85 faculties at Lucknow though we need 100. But with experts and industry professionals, we can easily fill in the gaps and look after another IIM.
IIM Ranchi students also told Pagalguy that no way are their studies or course work affected by the fact that IIMC mentors their institute. Students at IIM Ranchi do not get a Sunday off since faculty from IIMC flyover over the weekends to conduct classes the days IIMC has the weekend off. But this is not an issue for us. Lectures happen smoothly. To have IIMC faculty teaching us is a big thing, said Shubhankar Rai, first year student from IIM Ranchi.
Incidentally IIM Ranchi had the highest cut-offs among IIMs – at 99.65.
And not all new IIMs need hand-holding. IIM Shillong for instance, which began operations two years ago is functioning entirely on its own. Dr Ashoke Dutta, director of IIM Shillong is proud of the fact that his institute does not have another IIM mentoring it. It was a conscious decision to run this institute the way we wanted, independently. We decided to have our own faculty and processes in place. In a place like Shillong, we have to keep various local factors in mind while running an IIM.
Jitender Das, founder dean of IIML-Noida campus and professor of Marketing and presently director at FORE, adds that creation of a new IIM means a commitment from the part of the government to allocate funds for higher education which also means creation of certain infrastructure for the purpose of education which is required. And lot of tax payers money is actually going in for a good cause which will give rich dividends in times to come. In that sense it is a very welcome sign and must be encouraged and I would not mind 30 or 40 more IIMs or IITs happening in the country.
Quantity versus quality
In the bid to open so many IIMs is/will quality take a beating over quality. Fr Pradeep Kerketta, assistant director with Xavier Institute of Social Sciences (Ranchi) says that while there has to be an emphasis on quantity, quality should also keep pace. It is good that so many IIMs are coming up as they provide quality education but at no point should this number affect the kind of education being parted. While more IIMs are good, care should be taken that the services offered are consistent and match the standards laid down by the earlier IIMs.
Dr Ghai remarks that quality in teaching could get affected if care is not taken to get enough resources for the new IIMs. He an alumni of IIMA, Dr Ghai adds that the kind of teaching methods in a place like IIMA are difficult to match up.
Romit Dasgupta, director at Globsyn School adds that institutions like IIMs have always been among the best management institutions of Indian origin on the global stage. However with their growth in numbers, managing the extreme high standards of delivery and quality is going to be one of the key challenges.
Jitender Das, agrees but adds that the good thing about more IIMs is that there will be great demand of good faculty members competent and who should be at par with the standard of IIMs. And off course the non IIM institutions will have to tighten their belt and come up curve to compete with these IIMs. With the Rs 70,000 crore we spent on CW Games a 700 IIMs/IITs could have been created.
Land/infrastructure
Another issue of concern among new IIMs is land and infrastructure-related. Not all the new IIMs, have the sprawling campuses that IIM,A,B or C enjoy. Many are in fact, operating from temporary places.
IIM-Ranchi for instance, is operating out of Suchana Bhawan (government office building) and the hostel is across the road at the training hostel of Sri Krishna Sinha Institute of Public Administration.
IIM Ranchi is aggressively hunting for a new campus. There was a 214-acre site chosen at Nagri mouza village but protests by its villagers have forced IIM authorities to scout for a new site. A 40-acre site in Jhiri on the outskirts of Ranchi is being considered at the moment.
With regards to IIM Shillong too, a temporary campus has been set up at the Mayurbhanj complex (the erstwhile summer palace of Mayurbhanj Kings) of the North Eastern Hill University. A massive permanent campus has been earmarked a few kilometres away and construction work has started but will take a while before the b-school can go shift there.
With regards to IIM Rohtak too, classes are being held at the Maharishi Dayanand University (MDU) which is a make-shift campus. Work is on for a permanent campus at Garnawathi village, a few kilometres away from the present spot.
Prof Himanshu Rai agrees and cautions that new IIMs must come up at proper intervals and not too fast to ensure that an efficient process is being put in place and quality is maintained. I think the government is already doing it but care should be taken that the pace should be maintained all along.
Beneficiaries
Who exactly are the beneficiaries of the new IIMs – with 15 per cent lesser number of people taking the CAT exams this year, is there even a need for so many more IIMs? To this Prof Himanshu Rai says that the drop in the number of CAT takers has nothing to do with the waning interest in CAT. There are 160 other institutes that take CAT as the entrance exam. It is in this sphere that the interest has gone down. Recession is partly to be blamed for it. But no way are people less interested in joining an IIM.
Adds Fr Kerketta: Even if you open IIMs in rural areas, it will be mostly town people who will apply. Much of the rural population does not have the resources to apply to an IIM. So, if anyway the target audience is the same as other IIMs, at least the new IIMs should have the infrastructure and be easily accessible. Fr Kerkettas opinion makes sense in the fact that IIM Ranchi has only two students from Ranchi and one from Jamshedpur while IIM Shillong does not have a single student from Shillong.
Dr Ghai holds the view that establishing IIMs in Ranchi and Rohtak does not make immediate sense as these cities have no jobs to offer to graduates and it will be a while before they establish themselves as single identities.
Prof Himanshu Rai however begs to differ from all. He says that building IIMs in areas like Ranchi, Lucknow, Rohtak and Shillong will and is actually improving the lot of the cities. In Lucknow, post the IIM, there has been many more management and engineering colleges coming up. The city has also developed too in other areas. The idea to open IIMs in semi-urban areas is to develop the places.
Similarly in Shillong, the city has been greatly benefited from the activities drawn up by IIM Shillong for the benefit of the local population. In the same vein, Prof Himanshu Rai adds that it is no point starting an IIM in Mumbai, as there are already so many b-schools there.