Working With A Free Hand

How the new-found autonomy is working out for IIMs

- K.T.P. RADHIKA

Rajesh Kumar (name changed) faced an unexpected problem when he was in race for a senior management position in a Europe-based multinational in 2005. Despite having the requisite experience and qualifications, including a management degree from a prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM), the company favoured another candidate with an international MBA degree. The problem arose primarily because IIMs used to offer a two-year Post Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management and not a formal MBA degree. They were also not empowered to offer PhDs and gave those finishing doctoral studies the title of a Fellow instead.

That was then. Students who have passed out of IIMs starting 2019 are not likely to face the problem. The IIM Act, cleared by President Ram Nath Kovind on the last day of 2017, makes each of the 20 IIMs ‘Institution of National Importance’, just like the IITs and NITs, and empowers them to grant degrees.