With its five-year Integrated Progamme in Management where students can enrol themselves after school, IIM Indore has carved out a distinct path for itself, different from the other IIMs, says KV Kamath (in pic), Chairman of the Board of Governors of the B-school. One clear step IIM Indore took a few years ago was to introduce the integrated programme in management as it would mainstream those students who had not opted for an engineering programme and give them a head start, he explains. “We then also saw what we could do in terms of the mix of students in class with a larger number of non-engineering students. That, to my mind, was pioneering and we will have the first batch graduating next year,” says Kamath.
The large number of students (700 plus) in the core two-year MBA programme itself has led to IIM Indore becoming the largest single campus in the country for management education. “We are also placing an emphasis on people and have improved staff strength from around 55 two years ago to 76 now, and we are thinking in terms of training them by giving them global exposure,” he says.
Rishikesha Krishnan (in pic), Director, IIM Indore, says that the 5-year IPM programme is meant for those students who pass out of the 12{+t}{+h} standard. In the first three years, students undergo a foundation course of mathematics, statistics and economics, and also receive robust exposure to other social sciences and liberal arts. “The programme aims to graduate well-rounded students, and they get the best of both worlds when they join the mainstream MBA programme after their three years. The first batch will graduate in 2016. “We will have a set of students with an analytical bent of mind, who are creative and have a broad perspective of the world, and who can, in future, take up leadership positions,” explains Krishnan.
Last year, for 120 seats in IPM there were more than 12,000 applications. “And our projection is that this year there will be an increase of another 50 per cent. So we are expecting 17-18,000 people to apply this year,” says Krishnan.
On industry feedback to the IPM programme, Krishnan says that one part of industry is very excited. They are looking for people who come with a different perspective, and not only engineer-MBAs. They want people who have a good grounding in economics and the social sciences too, he explains. “But, I must confess, there is also a more conservative response which comes largely from the recruitment teams and HR. They say that these students have not gone through CAT, so they need to prove that they have the same analytical skills a regular IIM-MBA would have. We believe they do. We put them through a lot of maths, statistics and economics courses,” he elaborates.
Kamath, who is also Chairman of Infosys and ICICI Bank, says, IIM Indore will sonn vie for rankings with the older IIMs. “There are three parts: campus facilities, teaching capabilities, and third is what students take away. In campus facilities, IIM-I has caught up with the older IIMs, and in the next quarter campus development will be complete. In terms of teacher capabilities, that is work-in-progress. There is a significant ramp-up in staff, and they need to be skilled. Once that is done, you will students will see what this change means for them. I would also think that the IPM programme, with its bright young kids, will distinguish IIM Indore,” says Kamath.