IIM Bill 2015: Top PGDM schools anticipate discrimination; IAABS organizes 2 day summit to share concern

Anticipating discriminatory features in proposed IIM Bill 2015 that could make adverse impact on PGDM schools, Indian Association of Autonomous Business Schools (IAABS)recently organizedTheFirst Indian B-Schools Summitto discuss and deliberate on the possible promulgation of the IIM-MBA Bill and other important management education - centric issues at XIME Bangalore. Corporate leaders, top academicians, former directors of IIMs and present Directors of Highly ranked XLRI, MDI, IMI, TAPMI, XIME among others raised their voice against the anticipated biased approach against private B-schools in IIM Bill.

The 2-day conference was held atXIME Campus,Bangaloreon October 9 & 10, 2015 in collaboration withKarnataka Association of Autonomous Business Schools (KAABS). The theme of the seminar wasHeralding a New Era in management Education in India

Mr. B. Muthuraman,Former MD- Tata Steel & Former President- CII graced the event as the Chief Guest whileDr. Samuel Paul, Former Director- IIM Ahmedabad;Dr. R. Natarajan, Former Chairman- AICTE;Dr. N Sambandham, Chairman AIBMS were present as Guests of Honour.Other eminent speakers and guests attending the conference includedDr. Bakul Dholakia, Director General -IMI (Former Director IIM Ahmedabad);Dr. C.P. Shrimali, Director MDI, Gurgaon;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. Devi Singh, Vice Chancellor, FLAME, Pune (Former Director IIM Lucknow);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;Dr. Y.K.Bhushan, Director-IBS, Mumbai andProf. J Philip, President XIME (Former Director IIM Bangalore);among others.

The conference chaired byFr. E Abraham S.J., Director, XLRI- Xavier School of Management and President of IAABSbrought together distinguished Directors of leading autonomous, private PGDM Schools from all over the country, eminent former IIM directors and leading management educationists to discuss and review the present situation and make a request to the Government to protect the interests of private, autonomous PGDM Schools and ensure a level-playing field purely based on merit.

GoI going against its own policy
The influential section of Indian Intelligentsia opined that the biased MBA Bill would disrupt the equilibrium of management education system in India since it does not provide a level playing ground for private autonomous management institutes and with this bill government has gone against its own decades- long policy of encouraging PGDM institutes evolve as beacons of excellence
Addressing the conference,Fr. E Abraham S.J.Director XLRI commented,Of late, considerable concern has arisen among private, autonomous PGDM schools in regard to the possible promulgation of the IIM Bill 2015. In this context, many private PGDM schools have been examining the possible ramifications if IIMs are allowed to grant MBA degrees. Based on a series of interactions amongst many of the reputed private institutions from the PGDM system, we felt the need to organize the Conference of autonomous B-Schools (particularly PGDM) to discuss some important related issues.

EPSI also been raising the issue
In fact this issue has also been raised by Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI), a group representing 300 PGDM schools to let them award MBA degrees as proposed for IIMs. According to IAABS, central government has not approved this request. At present IIMs as well as privately owned B-schools such as XLRI- Jamshedpur, BIMTECH- Greater Noida and MDI- Gurgaon among others grant postgraduate diplomas in management (PGDM), not degrees. If the IIM-MBA bill allows IIMs to grant degrees, it will put the premier private B-Schools at a distinct disadvantage.

Demand for level playing field
Concerned at the proposed discrimination to PGDM schools in IIM Bill, Prof. J. Philip, President XIME & Former Director IIM Bangalorecommented,While we have no special view on the Governments initiative to give degree granting rights to the IIMs, it should not in any way adversely affect the operation of the PGDM schools, which have served the nation so eminently and eloquently all these years. The PGDM schools have given to Indian Management Education, quality, respectability and innovativeness. They are in a way at the vanguard of Indian Management Education. The employability of PGDM graduates would at least be twice as much as that of MBA graduates from the university system. This distinctive contribution of the PGDM schools must be recognized.

AIU reluctant to award PhD equivalence to Fellow programme
Recapitulating the proposed IIM Bill 2015,Fr. Abrahamadded,Another important matter that concerns autonomous PGDM schools is the continued reluctance of AIU in granting PhD equivalence to Fellow Program offered by reputed autonomous institutes approved by AICTE. Currently AIU grants equivalence only to IIMs. Even new IIMs have been granted equivalence. Many new private Universities are also allowed to grant PhD degrees.
Sharing about the steps taken on this issue Fr Abraham said On behalf of IAABS, we had written to Mr. M K Kaw, Chairman, AICTE review committee further highlighting our request for increased autonomy to PGDM B-schools. On February 22nd, 2015, we had attended the AICTE review Committee meeting in New Delhi where we had presented our submissions. Few of our above suggestions have been also recommended by the KAW Committee when they submitted their report a few months ago to the Ministry of HRD.

Emphasizing the need to further enhance the value of Indian management Education, Fr. Abrahamadded,We still have a long way to go and only through joint and sustained efforts will we be able to create a conducive environment to advance management education in our country especially for private autonomous PGDM institutes. We will have to gear up and formulate a practical strategy that would help us bring changes, and strengthen the management education system in our country. I sincerely hope that the discussions and recommendations resulting from this two day gathering will positively contribute to the consolidation of the aims of this summit and its underlying philosophy of greater autonomy based on self-regulation by autonomous B-Schools.

IAABS - Indian Association of Autonomous Business Schools was founded on June 16, 2014 and registered in Madras with Fr. E. Abraham SJ, Director XLRI as the first President. The main objective of the Association is to establish a network of PGDM/Autonomous Management institutions engaged in education, training and research in India and also to contribute to the development of management education in all aspects. The founding institutions included: XLRI, MDI, IMT Ghaziabad, TAPMI Manipal, XIME Bangalore, Balaji Institute of Modern Management, Pune and PSG Coimbatore. This was the First Indian B-Schools Summit by IAABS Chaired by Fr. E Abraham S.J., Director, XLRI- Xavier School of Management and President of IAABS