India's oldest B-school set to expand

The oldest management institute in the country, the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM) in Kolkata, is on an expansion drive. It plans to set up two new campuses at Rajarhat and Salt Lake, both on the eastern fringes of Kolkata. The Rajarhat campus will be spread over three acres while the Salt Lake campus will be set up in over 58 katha or less than one acre.

“The land at Rajarhat is already in our possession and the work is in progess. The Salt Lake campus will take time as the land is with the department of urban development. It needs to be handed over to the education department before we start work there,” says S N Ray, Director of IISWBM. Once these two campuses are ready, the courses offered by IISWBM under the aegies of Calcutta University will be shifted from its present Management House campus at College Street.

IISWBM was the first institute in the country to introduce a management education programme. Hence, when IISWBM celebrated its Golden Jubilee on April 25, 2003, it also underscored ‘50 years of management education’ in India. The institute was created through a resolution adopted by the Syndicate of the University of Calcutta on April 25, 1953.

Its building has two blocks, the foundation stone of one was laid by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of the country, and the other by B C Roy former Chief Minister of West Bengal. In the course of its existence for five decades the institute has produced quite a few distinguished alumni including Sumantra Ghoshal of London Business School, and L N Mittal of the ISPAT group. IISWBM institute used to run a course on enterpreneurship development with an intake capacity of 35 students which was later discontinued. They plan to reintroduce the course in association with Small Industries Development Bank of India. “The construction work has already started and we expect to start the course by the end of 2011,” says Ray.

At present, IISWBM offers regular courses such as MBA with intake capacity of 120, Master of Human Resource Management (intake: 60) and Master of Public Systems Management (intake: 120). Apart from these, they offer diploma courses for both regular students and professionals, in retail management, sports management and evening courses such as PGDBM and MBA (evening). They also offer a 65-day course for the doctors under the National Rural Health Mission.

IISWBM had a tie-up with a German university which did not work out beyond one year. Now, they are working on a tie-up with Duke University. “Over a period of 10 years, we plan to turn into a university with stress on social sciences. Our proposed tie-up with the Duke University will put us in good stead,” says Ray.