Coming up, IIM degrees

The process of making IIMs degree-awarding institutions is all set to begin soon. The committee formed by the HRD Ministry to come up with the draft IIM Bill is set to initiate process of consultation with all stake holders within a short span of time, IIM-Trichy Chairman, M Damodaran has said.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Chennai Centre of IIM-T on Wednesday, Damodaran said the stake holders would include students as well. The Bill was aimed at making the IIMs institutions of national importance thereby providing them the legal backing to award degrees. Currently, the premier institutes awarded only diplomas when students completed the programmes.

He said that the faculty was striving to ensure that it stood out from the rest of the IIMs in the country. “The older IIMs have churned out bright managers to sell soaps and cattle food rather than utilise them to enhance quality of health, sanitation and education in the country, which would automatically improve the quality of life. This is what we are trying to achieve at IIM-T,” he pointed out.

Prafulla Agnihotri, director of IIM-T, said 28 students had enrolled for the Chennai centre’s first batch of the three-year post-graduate programme in Business Management. The programme was designed for working executives. Many of the students, he said, had a working experience of almost eight years.

Apart from state-of-the-art classrooms, the centre would house a library with facilities to access e-resources already subscribed to by the institution for its campus in Tiruchy.

Officials said the Centre would be a platform for conducting placements even for those who had enrolled for programmes on the IIM’s Tiruchy campus.