A recently passed bill in the Lok Sabha, the IIM Bill is poised to grant greater autonomy to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) along with adequate accountability for especially decision making. The IIM Bill is currently pending approval in the Upper House, it declares IIM’s to be of National importance as well as the provisioning for granting degrees instead of the earlier diplomas.
IIM’s take on the Bill
Ashish Nanda, former Director of IIM Ahmedabad: “The Bill empowers IIM Boards, thus motivating the IIM leaders for strategic planning , overseeing the said execution, rewarding performance as well as reducing the overhead delays and inflexibility associated with centralised decision-making.” Stressing on the importance of autonomy, G. Raghuram, director, IIM Bangalore says, “The acknowledgement of autonomy for IIM’s in terms of faculty recruitment, design and delivery of our curriculum, sourcing funds as well as generating revenues must be openly made for.” In spite of this, concerns regarding the IIM’s reservation policy for faculty seats from marginalised groups in accordance with the government protocols have been doing the rounds for some time.
Experts: Bill disrupts the PGDM Ecosystem
According to SS Mantha, former chair AICTE: “PGDMs may be rendered irrelevant when IIMs will offer an MBA degree, as against the current industry standard of offering a Diploma.” He further adds: “This raises the issue of PGDM-MBA equivalence, as several reputed B-schools are private entities which have been running autonomously since the beginning but offered a diploma as that was the norm which stands challenged with IIMs granting degrees with the passing of this IIM Bill.”
The real challenge according to Raja Saxena (VC-NMIMS and chairman FICCI Higher Education Committee) lies in how this autonomy is executed.
According to him:
“Institutions can withstand any kinds of governmental pressure only if they can independently decide on financial matters which can be difficult if government is the primary funding source, especially in the case of newer IIMs.”
