In a bid to improve the global rankings of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) by attracting more international faculty and international students, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) has formed a half-dozen member member committee that will work on a new draft of the IIM Council Bill, an IIM director not wishing to be named told PaGaLGuY.
The committee, which includes a selection of IIM directors needs to submit the new draft in two weeks. “All the IIM directors are free to give suggestions, but the final draft will be created by this committee,” this director said.
At a meeting of IIM directors and board chairmen on Monday, MHRD minister Pallam Raju observed that most international students were repelled by the diploma status of the IIMs’ degree, and the IIM Bill would award the IIMs statutory body status that can award MBA and PhD degrees instead of PGDM and FPM certificates.
The MHRD has also asked the institute directors to work out a way to deliver video-streamed lectures from foreign faculty at the IIMs as a solution for increasing the role of international faculty in IIM programmes, another IIM director who was present at the meeting told PaGaLGuY.
He explained that although non-ethnic Indian faculty were not averse to traveling to India to teach for one or two semesters, they did have issues with working on longer term engagements or fulltime roles. “When they start converting a salary in Rupees to Dollars, they are not too keen to spend a long time teaching in India, even if it is at an IIM,” he said.
At the same time, the IIMs cannot be seen to pay higher salaries to international faculty in front of their Indian faculty. The board chairman of one of the IIMs suggested that each school be empowered to decide the salary structure for the international faculty, but a decision on this approach was put off until the next meeting, an MHRD official told PaGaLGuY. “Some of the younger IIMs felt that the older IIMs may have a monopoly in this matter and they (the newer ones) may stand to lose,” he added.
However, by making greater use of technology (video-conferencing, lecture-sharing over the Internet), the institutes will be able to take advantage of an international faculty’s visit at any of the IIMs and reduce costs in the process.
For attracting international students, members at Monday’s meeting also discussed the possibility of building hostels with international living standards, air conditioned rooms, special mess areas and individual bathrooms, the MHRD official said.
Discussion on this matter was also postponed for the next meeting. “If such amenities are provided, they need to be standard for both international as well as Indian students. However, it will be a time consuming task for all the IIMs to provide such facilities. Right now, it does not seem feasible,” one of the IIM directors quoted earlier said.