IIMs want foreign students with degrees and international accreditation

To get aspiring business leaders from foreign countries join their courses, IIMs are now trying to get accreditation from two global bodies and the authority to award degrees rather than diplomas in business management.

"Considerable progress has been made towards enabling the IIMs to award degrees rather than diplomas. Though the PGDM of the IIMs is very well recognised in industry, a degree would help in strengthening the reputation of the IIMs internationally," IIM Kolkata's outgoing director Shekhar Chaudhuri said.

The Ministry of HRD is already considering giving the IIMs the authority to award degrees through an Act of Parliament.

The authority to award degrees will provide tremendous academic flexibility to the IIMs to develop a variety of programmes that are not feasible on Sunday, he said.

The IIMs have so far been awarding two-year post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM) which is equivalent to an MBA.

The elite chain of B-schools have also been working for the last four-five years to get themselves accredited by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Stating that they are hoping accreditation early next year, Chaudhuri said they have also decided to get another accreditation from the Association of Master of Business Administration (AMBA) in sync with the international trend of having triple accreditation.

"Our long term goal is to get full time international students to join our PGP (Post Graduation Program). Accreditation by AACSB and AMBA would help in that endeavour," Chaudhuri said.