IIMs allowed to set up their own foreign campuses

Institutes to resolve home-front issues before going international.

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have been allowed to set up international campuses on their own instead of doing it along with other IIMs as earlier insisted by the ministry of human resource development (MHRD).

The MHRD, had in October 2009, allowed IIMs to go abroad but only as a collective brand. Some IIM directors, however, felt it would affect the individual brand identity of their campuses, and had made known their fears to the MHRD.

“The MHRD, has relaxed the norm by allowing us to go solo on our international plans and we welcome this decision,” says Samir Barua, director, IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A). Last October, he had told Business Standard that going abroad as a collective brand would affect the brand identity of individual campuses.

Around five years ago, IIM Bangalore (IIM-B) was the first among IIMs to think of an international footprint — Singapore. The idea of a campus in Singapore, however, was turned down by the then HRD minister Arjun Singh who felt there was a need to meet domestic demand first.

While this decision must be a reprieve for IIMs, they say are not looking at an international foray immediately as managing their resources on the home front itself is a challenge at present.

“We are not looking at an international footprint at present. We are dealing with faculty shortage on our campus in Ahmedabad. We have 95 faculty members and we need 25 more to meet the students need here. We are recruiting from North America right now,” added Barua.

IIM Bangalore, on its part, says it has not yet studied which market it plans to be in, the size, advantages, and what programmes to offer, etc. “We would need some time to decide on these issues,” says an IIM-B professor who did not wish to be named.

Along with an international presence, the IIMs say they want to have a mix of international students and their international linkages will help them achieve this.

As and when the IIMs launch their international plans, they might do it with one-year executive management programme, they say.

The IIMs, however, are confident that an IIM campus abroad will be financially viable since the fees will be of international standards and therefore much higher than that Indian fees. Indian institutes with campuses abroad generally go for a two-cycle approach, which involves setting up operations through a rented place for two years and branching out to their own campuses in three years time.

“Starting with rented premises helps the institute get quickly off the ground and also allow it time to understand and study the geography to set up a campus or expand,” points out an IIM director.