IIMs in no mood to compromise with their autonomy

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are not ready to lose their autonomy at any cost. The 13 prestigious B-Schools of the country have rejected the government’s proposal to bring under the overarching advisory body similar on the pattern of IIT Council. IIT council is the top most authority in IITs to make any kind of decisions, which is headed by the minister of human resource development (HRD).

The institute has given their feedback over the draft of IIM Bill prepared by the HRD Ministry. According to the proposed bill, the IIMs will be upgraded and offer degrees instead of present diplomas.

As per the ministry’s source, all the IIMs are opposing the new idea of IIM Council as they are assuming that after the implementation of proposed bill IIMs will lose their “autonomy” as well as their “flexibility”. Besides, the seven old IIMs are opposing this idea more strongly as compared to the newly established IIMs.

The ministry has established a five-member committee- which includes directors of IIM Kozhikode, IIM-Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Kozhikode, IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Udaipur and former SEBI chairman and head of the board of governor of IIM Trichy M. Damodaran-to hone the draft law and seek the views of IIMs.

The IIMs have sent back their feedback last month over the proposed draft. The next meeting to discuss the bill will be conducted next month. IIM Director, who is a member of the committee, established by the HRD Ministry, said, “All the IIMs are in different stages of growth and each one of us has built a unique character. An umbrella body like the IIT Council may try and impose uniform standards through a collective decision and that could be a problem for us.”

Another committee member said, “The media had recently reported that IIM Ahmedabad is mulling an annual package of Rs1 crore for its new director to attract best talent for the job. Each IIM has a different fee structure. We are afraid that the flexilibility to take such independent decisions may no longer be there with the Council.”

(Source: Times of India)