Everonn, MeritTrac have jointly bagged contract for Common Admission test (CAT) 2010 as delivery partners.

According to Prometric which conducts CAT in India, both the companies will work closely for the preparation of testing venues, as well as administration of the CAT 2010. In addition to tightening the processes for site readiness and training, Prometric will also be implementing a longer test site preparation period.

Everonn is an existing test delivery partner of Prometric’s IT certification business and MeritTrac has a good track record in conducting examinations in India.

Source: www.moneycontrol.com

IIMs are busy updating and revamping the existing curriculum for their two-year flagship post-graduate programme (PGP). They typically conduct a comprehensive review of the syllabus every 3-4 years to incorporate developments and changes in industries and the economy.

IIM Calcutta (IIM-C), for instance, has used feedback from its students and companies to plan and develop new courses. These courses would be implemented from the current academic year. For financial modelling, IIM-C plans to invite faculty from US-based business schools.

IIM Indore, on its part, has rejigged its curriculum. This academic year onwards, all the compulsory courses in PGP will be a part of the first year syllabus while the second year will be more elemental.

The rejig in curriculum is based on the inputs the institute collected from leading business schools abroad. Likewise, IIM Kozhikode intends to have more optional courses and less core courses. The institute plans to implement the revised curriculum from next academic year. IIM Lucknow (IIM-L), on its part, is in the process of updating its syllabus which would reflect reality and would be more issue-oriented. It will also include courses on ethics. From this academic year, it is introducing new courses and topical workshops. IIM-L consults its alumni and faculty to revamp its syllabus.

IIM Bangalore, too, is reviewing its curriculum. It wants its courses help management graduates tackle future business agendas. IIM-A, which revamped its syllabus recently, has introduced the slot system (instead of the term system) to ensure greater flexibility. The institute has also made ethics a compulsory course for the first year students.

Source: www.business-standard.com

The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM-K) is in the process of revamping its curriculum for its two-year flagship post graduate programme (PGP). The process, which will take six months to complete, began a month-and-a-half back.

IIM-K has set up a four-member committee comprising the Deans of a Singapore and Canadian business school besides a faculty member from IIM-K and the director himself to update the new curriculum. The curriculum will include suggestions from global faculty members of the likes of Standford, Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The 13-year old institute last updated its curriculum two years ago and plans to incorporate far more realistic topics to tackle future business agenda this time.

“Today’s classrooms are more like a movie theatre where the performer has to create a connection with the audience, unlike earlier when it was like an operation theatre where the doctor would just deliver. In a 90-minute session, we have to capture the students’ imagination instead of just delivering. The current curriculum does not reflect the changing times and needs to be revamped to suit a competitive world,” says Debashis Chatterjee, director, IIM Kozhikode.

The institute intends to design a curriculum that would not only be futuristic but also instil values in students.

“IIM-K will have a trendsetter curriculum. We have included not just the new economic scenario but the new world. So far, businesses were being licensed only by the government, but future businesses will be licensed by the community, society and the environment. Keeping that in mind, the hallmark of the curriculum will be ‘perspective’ building. Students will be much more socially-sensitive and environmentally-committed. It will be more realistic, will create a better sense of responsibility and will deliver value for future businesses which would demand a lot more from the managers of tomorrow,” says Chatterjee.

IIM-K, which claims to have more number of female and underprivileged students than other business schools, will unfold the new curriculum in the 2011-12 academic year. Chatterjee concludes, “We have given a broad perspective to the curriculum. We are working on the details. We need to ask questions like ‘How to capture the imagination of the student of the future’ for the content.”

Source: www.business-standard.com

Brand IIM could take a beating if it fails to find quality faculty as it grows.

The managements of the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are sitting on the horns of a dilemma. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) wants them to add capacity. It reasons this will help in nurturing good quality students who may even take to teaching later, thus increasing the number of good faculty members. This would also help in increasing the gross enrollment ratio (GER), which stands at around 12.4 per cent.

Towards this end, under the 11th Five Year plan, the MHRD entailed, among other things, the setting up of eight Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and seven IIMs.

The IIMs nod in agreement. However, they believe that rapid capacity expansion could defeat the very cause they have set out to achieve. Consider this. The established IIMs increased their student strength by anywhere between 10- and 35 per cent over the last one year.

But where is the faculty to cater to the additional students? At present, the seven IIMs have around 400 full-time faculty members and need another 60. With four new IIMs to come up in the first phase (2010-2011), another 250 faculty members would be required. IIMs meet less than five per cent of India’s need for management education. They not only generate qualified faculty for their own needs but also for other management institutes.

“My concern is that unless we have adequate and good quality faculty, there will be no point in adding capacity. We are expanding a bit too fast because supply of good faculty is not there,” says Samir Barua, director of IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) which saw a 10 per cent increase in its student intake in 2009-10.

Much of the increase in student strength is because of implementation of the other backward classes (OBC) quota — another cause for heartburn. “After the Supreme Court order, we had no choice but to increase the student intake but this only increases the number of people at the bottom of the pyramid,” says another IIM director wishing anonymity.

Devi Singh, IIM Lucknow’s (IIM-L) director adds another perspective. He says, “Though increased student strength would mean that more students would get access to good quality education, two years down the line, at the time of placements, the job market will be under pressure and hence, job profiles and salaries could change”. “Infrastructure is another challenge because when you talk about IITs and IIMs, there is an implicit angle of quality,” adds Singh.

Even Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had earlier told this paper that “…we have to make sure there is capacity to spend. It takes time to set up institutes likes central universities, IIMs and IITs. Sometimes sites are not decided and there is the issue of faculty needs. So, though classes may start and students may come, a full-fledged campus may take time.”

The MHRD had stated its intention to establish seven new IIMs. Four IIMs were to be set up in Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Raipur (Chhattishargh) and Rohtak (Haryana) in 2009-10. The remaining three are to be set up in Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan in 2010-11.

In phase-I, 140 students would be absorbed in the Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) course after which the number would be increased to 560 students a year once the remaining IIMs are set up.

Mentoring of the younger IIMs is another grey area. IIM Trichy is mentored by IIM-Bangalore while Raipur by IIM Indore, and Ranchi by IIM Calcutta. Rohtak is getting support from IIM-L. IIM–A is supposed to mentor IIM Rajasthan (which is slotted to start next year).

The task can be taxing with no regular director or teachers on board. For instance, professors from IIM-L have been visiting Rohtak on alternate days, reportedly spending nights at the faculty house in Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak. The staff from Lucknow has travelled by air from Lucknow to Delhi and by road from Delhi to Rohtak. So there’s a cost involved too.

Allocation of funds is another issue troubling IIMs. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee allocated Rs 400 crore in the 2010-11 Budget to set up new IITs -— 33 per cent higher than Rs 300 crore in 2009-10. The money set aside for new IIMs has been raised from Rs 3 crore (revised) in 2009-10 to Rs 25 crore in 2010-11.

The IIMs, however, are not happy with the budget. The allocation, they believe, is insufficient since the increase will be eaten by inflation and paying extra wages due to the increase post the Sixth Pay Commission. As a result, it could cut into the funds for refurbishing the infrastructure.

It took years for existing IIMs to be set-up and make a name for themselves, point out the directors. Hasty, unplanned expansion could cost them dearly.

Source: www.business-standard.com

The Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, has tied-up with three top Asian B-schools to devise a strategy to attract more students from the US, Canada and Europe.

Along with the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST), China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), ISB officials will jointly market the potential of studying management in Asia to Western students. All four B-schools, including ISB, feature among the top 30 in the Financial Times (London) rankings of the Top 100 Business Schools in the world.

After five months of meetings and discussions, these four Asian B-schools have now branded themselves as ‘Top 4Asia B-schools’, created a logo which depicts the same, have a common signature, and a website http://www.topasiabschools.com to achieve the creation of an ‘Ivy League’ kind of image for students from developed countries. The ‘Ivy League’ refers to eight north-eastern US colleges — Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth University, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.

These ‘Top 4 Asia B-schools’, on their newly-created website, reason that “Asia is the new land of opportunity. This is where you should be…to be present to learn to address the challenges of today’s increasingly complex business world. And, it is what makes a vital difference in your CV and to the direction your career is headed.”

“Asian education has now reached a critical mass trajectory. It is in our interest to give students multiple options. Hence, we got together with the other prominent Asian B-schools to jointly market our programmes. This proves more effective than going it alone,” asserts Deepak Chandra, deputy dean of ISB.

Along with their counterparts from the other three Asian B-schools, ISB officials will sometimes travel together to North America and Europe, to promote their cause.

“This could be in the form of World MBA events wherein we travel together along with the officials of the other B-schools or sometimes in pairs. We also plan to participate in seminars besides using collaterals, etc. in the countries that we travel to,” says V K Menon, senior director (Career Advancement & Admissions), ISB.

Menon points out that traditional marketing methods like direct mailers, advertising, etc., are “prohibitively expensive”, hence “this strategy makes senses”. “We have a history of collaboration, especially in executive education programmes,” he adds. For instance, ISB has collaborations with some of the world’s leading corporations including a number of Fortune 500 companies, the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at North Western University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and London Business School.

All the top four Asian B-schools, including ISB, have an international standing, a pedigree and are well-anchored in their own regions. ISB enjoys the distinction of being the first Indian B-school to be ranked among the top 12 global business schools in the FT rankings. All its faculty members hold doctorates.

HKUST was established in 1991. Today, it is regarded as Hong Kong’s premier business learning centre and its MBA programme has been consistently ranked No.1 in Asia by The Economist and world No. 9 by Financial Times in 2010. HKUST Business School is characterised by a blend of East meeting West. It was the first institute in Asia to be awarded dual accreditation by AACSB in the US and EQUIS in Europe.

CEIBS, on its part, has the longest running MBA programme in mainland China and the biggest EMBA programme in the world. The school has 10,000 graduates worldwide and 1,000 are added every year. It ranks No. 22 globally by Financial Times and has been No.1 in Asia for six years.

The Nanyank MBA has consistently been Singapore’s No.1 MBA programme (both Financial Times Global BA rankings and The Economist’s MBA rankings) for several years. It provides a pan Asian experiential learning, spanning China, India and the rest of Asia, while allowing global experience as Singapore is home to more than 5,000 global MNCs.

Source: www.business-standard.com