MBA course does not reflect business realities, it requires intensive interaction
between students, teachers and companies, but this contact is diminishing.
The rapid growth in batch sizes at business schools could
have a wide ranging impact on business and hinder the development of new companies,
say experts. “Premier institutes like the IIMs have always had close-knit student
groups and strong alumni networks”, says IIM, Ranchi director M.J. Xavier, an IIM,
Calcutta alumnus. “The networking within these groups that helped old classmates
conceptualize and incubate start-ups and create business connections could already
be on the decline”, he says. Heads of companies believe that course content does
not reflect business realities.
The cornerstone of an MBA course at a premier school
is based on case studies that require intensive interaction between students, teachers
and companies, but this contact is diminishing, they say. “One reason why students
from the IIMs are readily employable is because faculty members are in close touch
with industry and understands its requirements”, says K.S. Sundar Ram, an IIM-A alumnus
and executive director at auto component’s company Natesan Synchrocones. If batch
sizes continue to grow, he says, teachers will not have much time for industry contact
or research. Some institutes, like ISB, Hyderabad, say; they are trying to address
the issue by giving weightage to research work, which includes publication of papers
and industry interaction during annual appraisal of faculty members.
“Faculty time
is demarcated between teaching, research and administrative matters, with research
being given the largest share”, says ISB deputy dean Deepak Chandra. But company
heads say the government must also act and change its policy of inclusivity at the
cost of quality. Six new IIM campuses have been set up since 2009, taking the total
number to 13 by 2011. As with other premier management institutes that are expanding
more rapidly than feasible, inadequate infrastructure is a worry even at the new
IIM campuses. Experts say the government’s mandate to decide the pay of faculty
members has also created problems. Because of this, IIM-A has been forced to find
other ways to supplement compensation and this has led to many unintended consequences,
says Prafull Anubhai in recently-released book “The IIM-A Story”.
Courtesy: Times of India
