IIM-Kozhikode in talks to set up satellite campus

In a bid to meet its infrastructure needs, Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode (IIM-K) is mulling setting up a satellite campus in Kochi. The institute is expanding its existing campus area by acquiring 15 acres of land.

The institute is in talks with a public sector undertaking (PSU) in Kochi to take one of its buildings on rent. The PSU has a campus of around 200 acres. IIM-K has already received the approval of its board to start negotiations for the building. “We are in talks (for the satellite campus). If it goes through, we will look at new offerings and short term programmes on the campus,”said Debashis Chatterjee, director of IIM-K.

Spread over 100 acres of land, IIM-K is situated on two hillocks in Kunnamangalam area of Kozhikode. The 15 acres of land it has acquired will be utilised for water harvesting and constructing other facilities like a gymnasium. The institute has invested Rs 20 crore for this land which has been sourced from a combination of its corpus fund, grants and profits. It has a corpus of around Rs 100 crore. So far, only IIM-Lucknow among the IIMs has a satellite campus, which is located in Noida. Chatterjee said that once negotiations would be complete, decisions on programmes, intake among other things, would be taken.

Started in 1997 with a batch of 42 students for its PGP, the institute’s intake for 2009 was 309 students which is an increase of five times in seven years. It is a pioneer of on-site learning programmes and runs seven programmes with HughesNet Global Education. For the the incoming PGP batch, the institute has increased its fees by a lakh taking the fee to Rs 10 lakh for the two year programme. The institute is also in the process of getting an Association of MBAs (AMBA) accreditation, which it expects to receive by next year.