Top PGDM institutes meet HRD Minister Dr Pallam Raju; Seek more autonomy

Directors, Deans and Presidents of top PGDM institutions met Union Minister of HRD Dr M M Pallam Raju on June 26, 2103 in New Delhi and sought more autonomy for them towards making India a hub for management education.
The PGDM delegation was led by Fr Abraham, Director, XLRI, Prof Joe Philip, President, XIME, Prof Indira Parikh, President, FLAME, Dr G Viswanathan, President, EPSI and Dr H Chaturvedi, Alternate President, EPSI.
The representatives from different PGDM institutions across the country apprised the MHRD about problems facing the autonomous institutions and presented a memorandum to the HRD Minister seeking more autonomy and operation freedom on conducting admissions, deciding curriculum, and drawing fee structure amongst other issues.
Other representatives who participated in the discussion include Dr R C Natarajan, Director, TAPMI Manipal; Dr B Metri, Dean, IMI, New Delhi; Prof S Sriram, Executive Director, Great Lakes, Chennai; Dr G P C Nayar, President, SCMS, Cochin; Prof R K Mishra, Director, IPE, Hyderabad; Dr Sunil Rai, Director, Goa Institute of Management, Goa; Prof Pradeep Bavedkar, MD, MITCOM, Pune; Mr Shekhar Vishwanathan, Pro Chancellor, VIT, Vellore; Dr Ashok Mittal, Chancellor, Lovely Professional University and Mr Dipak Gupta, President, JIMS, Delhi.
The members of the delegation told the HRD Minister that the AICTEs Notification of December, 2010 has attempted to withdraw autonomy enjoyed by PGDM institutions. They apprised the Minister about three interim orders of the Supreme Court which stayed AICTEs order for last three academic sessions and a final verdict is awaited.
We briefed the Minister about the vibrant growth of management education made possible by the autonomous nature of PGDM programme which is free from archaic rules of the universities, said Dr Harivansh Chaturvedi, Alternate President EPSI; & Director, BIMTECH.
Fr Abraham, Prof Joe Philip and Prof Indira Parikh urged the Minister to empower a special regulator for management education. They said that the management programmes in early years of the AICTE, during 70s and 80s, used to be governed by the All India Board of Management Studies under the AICTE. Now the Board has become almost defunct and all its powers have been usurped by the AICTE. An appeal was made to the Minister that the Board should be revived and all development activities related to the management education can be handed over to it, said Dr Chaturvedi.
The Directors of PGDM institutions conveyed to the Minister that currently AICTE grants year-by-year approval to all management education for which very cumbersome compliance procedure need to be followed. They urged the HRD Minister that approval for all well established institutions should be for a five years period rather than one year.
The delegation also sought government intervention in encouraging a fair environment for PGDM institutes and overall development of MBA education in the country. The key suggestions to MHRD included the following areas:
(i) Accreditation of Institutions: Not necessarily NBA, but any recognized international accreditation [AACSB, EQUIS, SAQS and AMBA] should be acceptable. Accredited institutions must be given more autonomy in terms of number of students, courses, etc.
(ii) Admissions to Foreign Students: Permitting PGDM institutions to admit students of foreign origin will bring in both foreign exchange and cultural diversity. Currently only MBA institutions enjoy this privilege. Visa rules for the foreign students should be students friendly.
(iii) Research Grant: Allowing all and sundry Management institutions to apply for research grant from AICTE should be stopped. This should be confined to top 50 B-schools which have demonstrated research capabilities among their faculty.
(iv) Marketing of Indian MBA Abroad: The MHRD and Ministry of External Affairs should join hands to market Indian MBA in Asia, Europe and Africa.
(v) Attracting NRI Faculty: On lines similar to China, NRI faculty could be attracted to work in Indian B-schools by providing them tax free income, good research support and moderate visa rules.
(v) Faculty scarcity: To attract young talented scholars for joining the teaching at B-schools, a national Ph.D. Scheme can be launched under which 1000 scholars can be given a fellowship of Rs 50,000/- p.m. for four years duration. 50 top B-schools can be asked to run Ph.D. Programmes. These 1000 scholars can be recruited for next five years to groom 5000 talented faculty for B-schools.
(vi) Global Visibility of Indian Management Education: To encourage Indian B-schools for globalizing themselves and for learning from peers B-schools, there is a need of funding visits of deans, directors and faculty members for attending international conferences, seminars, workshops and symposiums.
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