Private B-schools Unite Against HRD’s IIM Bill

Private colleges are joining hands to pressure HRD Ministry to ensure a fair deal for them in the IIM Bill

Several leading private and autonomous colleges offering postgraduate diploma in management (PGDM) have joined hands with other institutions in the country to exert pressure on the human resource development (HRD) ministry to ensure justice in wake of the likely promulgation of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) bill, 2015.

A two-day summit will be held at Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship, Bangalore on October 9 and 10 to bring together directors of leading autonomous, private PGDM schools from across the country to chalk out a road map.

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The stated purpose of the draft bill is to strengthen IIMs and declare them institutes of national importance and allow them to grant MBA and PhD degrees – as opposed to the postgraduate diplomas and fellowships they currently offer.

According to the Indian Association of Autonomous Business Schools (IAABS), a two-day summit will be held at Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship, Bangalore on October 9 and 10 to bring together directors of leading autonomous, private PGDM schools from across the country to chalk out a road map.

The conference will be attended by prominent educationists like Dr. Bakul Dholakia, Director General -IMI (Former Director – IIM Ahmedabad), Dr. Abad Ahmed, Former Director, FMS, Delhi, Dr. A K Sengupta, Director, SEISCOMS (Former Director, S P Jain Institute of Management, Dr. Bibek Banerjee, Former Director, IMT Ghaziabad, Dr. C.P. Srimali, Director MDI, Gurgaon, Dr. Devi Singh,Vice Chancellor, FLAME, Pune (Former Director – IIM Lucknow), Prof. J Philip, President XIME (Former Director IIM Bangalore), Dr. R C Natarajan, Director TAPMI, Manipal, Dr. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Former Director, IIM-Kolkata, Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, Wellingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai & Bangalore among others.

The meet will help discuss a way forward to ensure IIMs being empowered to award master of business administration (MBA) degrees over PGDM degrees offered by private and autonomous institutions will not undermine the latter’s importance. Educationists will discuss and review the present situation and make a request to the Centre to protect the interests of private, autonomous PGDM schools.

“There is cause for concern among private, autonomous PGDM schools in connection with the possible promulgation of the IIM Bill. A number of private PGDM schools are examining the possible ramifications if IIMs are allowed to grant MBA degrees. Based on interactions with other PGDM private institutions, we felt the need to organize a conference of autonomous B-schools (particularly PGDM) to discuss the way forward”, said XLRI director Fr E Abraham.

The major issues that are likely to be discussed and deliberated upon at the conference includes greater autonomy to private and autonomous business institutes, role of the government to be limited to that of facilitator and submission to the government to protect the interests of autonomous, private PGDM schools.

Earlier this year, OneYearMBA.co.in had raised an online petition to the government of India that brought a student perspective on the IIM Bill to the fore. Hundreds of IIM alumni and current students signed the petition which put forward students’ views on the bill which could empower IIMs to award MBA status to pre-experience PGP courses which are accredited as Masters in Business Management (MBM) courses by global accreditation body, Association of MBAs. Students asked the government to ensure that MBA status is exclusive to globally accredited full-time MBA courses at IIMs which are all one-year in duration.