Top B-schools brainstorm fallout of IIM Bill

Around 50 top B-schools offering management courses on Saturday discussed the fallout of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bill, 2017, which allows the institutes to award degrees to their students.

The management schools that attended a meeting organised by the Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI) in New Delhi are only allowed to offer postgraduate diplomas in management (PGDM) to their students. These schools decided to seek a level playing field with the IIMs.

The non-IIM B-schools are seeking degree-granting power from the HRD ministry since they fear passing of the IIM Bill will lead to recruiters and foreign partners questioning the validity of diplomas. However, before approaching the Centre, EPSI will invite views from the 500-plus non-IIM B-schools.

“The meeting was to understand that if IIMs go on to offer MBAs and PGDM institutions continue to offer diplomas then what will be the impact. There is some kind of inequality that will be created. This meeting was to find out what could be the possible implications,” said Atish Chattopadhyay, director of IMT Ghaziabad, one of the EPSI members present at the meeting.

An official in the human resource ministry said the government was aware of the issue and would pursue the matter once approached by management schools. “It is a policy issue and the government will weigh all options before arriving at any conclusion,” the official said.

Among the views discussed at the meeting, the Bschools explored possibility of a separate board for management education that covered even the IIMs.