Indian Institute of Mangement Tiruchirapalli (IIM Trichy) plans an international conference in decision sciences this December which will be held in its campus. “We are expecting over 100 international delegates from Australia, the US and Europe, and 300 delegates from India. Around 500 industry experts, scholars, academics and faculty members are expected to attend,” says Dr Bhimaraya Metri, Director, IIM Trichy.
With faculty from overseas universities visiting, Dr Metri says IIM Trichy will take advantage of the international weekand have them teach short courses. “Faculty members will give their course outline and our students will select courses based on their specialisations. The international faculty will teach one credit course which our students want; some 10-15 courses will be floated, and students can choose the course. To go to an international business school will cost at least ₹5 lakh, but in this programme we are bringing the faculty here. We are also offering this to other second generation IIMs as their international faculty exchange programme is not that strong at present,” Dr Metri elaborated.
Three-pronged agenda
In an interview, Dr Metri says that his agenda for Trichy is three-fold: focus on executive education, strengthen research and go for international accreditation. “That will be my key agenda in the coming years and also how fast we can move to the new campus,” he adds. IIM Trichy will also look to strike up relationships with PSUs for their training programmes; it has launched an eight month certificate programme for HPCL and is in talks with BPCL as well for a training programme.
The Director says its new 175-acre facility will be a smart campus. He points out that for the first gen IIMs — IIM A/B/C, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode — the infrastructure was already built and all the students had to do was go and study. “But IIM Trichy is still work in progress, so students who join our campus also participate in institution-building with their ideas. The thinking of today’s millennial is different, and our faculty is also young and tech-savvy; they use tech platforms, teaching methodologies and pedagogy and connect better and faster with the millennials,” he explains.
Second-generation courses
Dr Metri said that currently its faculty members are working on second generation courses. Digital marketing and business analytics courses, as well as sectoral analytics courses such as in HR and marketing are already in vogue.
“According to a Gartner study, by 2020 a large number of data scientists are required. Today, there are new platform-based technology models such as those followed by a Flipkart or an Ola. There are no courses today on these new business models and, in the coming year, we are going to float these courses as electives,” he adds.