SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai is planning to increase student intake in its Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) from the current 180 to 240 starting 2013. The institute is awaiting a green signal from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for the expansion.

“SP Jain had applied to AlCTE for increased student intake on January 31, 2012. The increase in strength would be by 60 students,” said Dr ML Shrikant, honorary dean, SPJIMR. However, the management institute is sceptical as to when the increase might be implemented owing to the AICTE’s approval. “The ball is in AICTE’s court now. Considering that it took AICTE seven years to grant us permission to take our batch strength from 120 to 180, we are keeping our fingers crossed,” he said.

When PaGaLGuY spoke to an AICTE official about this matter, he said, “Applications are disposed off on a year-to-year basis, therefore any institute’s statement about having waited for seven years cannot be accepted,” he said.

“We currently have one of the smallest batch of students amongst our peer b-schools, which is why we are thinking on the lines of increasing the intake in the PGDM programme,” Dr Shrikant said, adding that he wanted to expand the faculty strength as well from 50 to 75.

Meanwhile, AICTE says that it will release the list of approved new institutes, courses and intake revisions by May 2012.

If allowed to, SPJIMR will implement the increased intake from the 2013-2015 academic year. “The students will be accommodated in the existing infrastructure itself, as the SP Jain’s contract with Schulich School of Business (Canada) expires this year. The resources freed up will be utilised for the increased PGDM batch size,” Dr Shrikant explained. The Schulich School of Business has announced plans of starting its own campus at Hyderabad starting 2013.

Meanwhile, the management institute has also applied to AICTE for inclusion of 15% foreign students in the PGDM programme as well. “We would like to include foreign students in our programme as we are aiming at the globalisation of the student body,” said Dr Shrikant.

SP Jain does not have any foreign students in its PGDM programme at the moment. “The presence of foreign students in the class brings in inter-cultural perspectives of different countries,” he said.