IIM Bill 2017: Impact on other B-schools offering PG diploma instead of management degree

The Indian Institute on Management Bill 2017, that seeks to allow the IIMs to award degrees instead of diplomas, was recently cleared in the Lok Sabha. Once it is cleared by Rajya Sabha too, the bill will become a reality.

While passage of IIM Bill has come as a good news for IIM aspirants, it is a cause of concern for other management institutes offering PGDM programmes.

Management educators contend that once parliament passes the IIM Bill 2017, it will lead to recruiters and foreign partners questioning the validity of PGDM.

Sharing his apprehension about the IIM Bill, Professor Jitendra K Das, Director, FORE School of Management said that though it may not impact the students in the long run, its effect will be felt in the long run.

"In my view the IIM Bill in the short run will have only "notional and sentimental" impact on students. This would be so because in India IIMs and other government university departments are able to provide only about 13% of seats for MBA/PGDM. Thus students have to take admissions in PGDM institutions, some of which are better than some of the IIMs.”

“In the long run this IIM Bill will have a detrimental impact on PGDM institutions especially in the international perspective. It must be noted that PGDM institutions came about only because IIMs were offering PGDM programs. It is unfortunate that the government while passing the IIM Bill has completely ignored the PGDM institutions that offers about 87% of MBA/PGDM demand in the country," he said.

After the Union Cabinet cleared the IIM Bill in March this year, directors of over 50 PGDM institutes got together under the aegis of the Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI) to seek from the government a National Management University (NMU) that will empower them to award degrees as well, for a level playing field.

Dr Harivansh Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH and Alt. President, Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI), said that even though allowing autonomy to IIMs is a bold move by the government, passage of IIM Bill will disturb the equilibrium between them and 500+ private institutes.

“Passing of the IIM Bill, 2017 by the Parliament is going to create a big anomaly by disturbing an equilibrium between IIMs and 500 + self-financed PGDM institutions which have been working for more than 35 years.”

“In sixties, after the formation of IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta, it was thought that since 3 IIMs will not be able to fulfill the manpower needs of the Indian industries, private PGDM institutions like XLRI, SPJIMR, IMI, IMT, TAPMI, IRMA, BIMTECH etc. were allowed by the MHRD to be run under the apron of the AICTE as autonomous business schools. During last 60 years, several lakhs of management graduates joined various industries within the country and abroad,” he said.

"These PGDM institutions are providing 60,000 management graduates every year which is ten times the graduates produced by 20 IIMs. We expect that the MHRD and the Neeti Ayog will find out a way out to save the autonomy and legal identity of PGDM institutions,“ he added.

Emphasizing on the need for a separate Indian Management Education Bill and a Council for Management, Dr Chaturvedi said, “In the coming decade, Indian economy will require millions of talented managers, entrepreneurs and civil servants with management orientation. 20 IIMs together can produce 10,000-20,000 managers. Private B-schools particularly PGDM institutions are a huge nursery for producing one lakh to two lakh managers. Public universities and distance learning programmes can produce additional five-seven lakh barefoot managers who can manage entire informal sector, MSME sector and thousands of government schemes.”

According to reports, the government is mulling operational freedom to private management institutes. A committee comprising two IIM directors and the dean of XLRI, Jamshedpur, has reportedly been set up by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) to find out areas in which autonomy can be granted to those institutes.