Q&A: Archana Shukla, Dean, Noida campus, IIM Lucknow
'We are in the process of revamping course content'
Having taken charge as Dean of the Noida campus of the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L), Archana Shukla has her work cut out for her — right from consolidation to the handling of faculty crunch. Though she has been associated with the institute for the past 13 years, Shukla tells Chitra Unnithan that the task is challenging. She discusses some of her plans for the campus in an interview. Edited excerpts:
What are your initial thoughts as the new dean of IIM-L’s Noida campus?
I have been involved with IIM-L for the last 13 years and I believe the quality and rigour of the courses for all executive programmes at the Noida campus will ensure that our executive programmes will become even more sought after. We aspire to reach a level where anybody looking for quality executive education will choose IIM-L’s Noida campus. We have undertaken several new initiatives and are doing a complete revamp of the courseware for certain programmes. It is my endeavour to ensure the rollout happens smoothly for the new batch.
Has the setting up of another campus helped IIM-L?
IIM-L is the only IIM to set up an additional campus. The focus is to impart excellence in executive education. The Noida campus of IIM-L has started to become synonymous for quality executive education and we are sure it will be recognised as the place to enhance the business skills for middle and senior management.
What has been lined-up for new students?
Change is an ongoing process at IIM-L and not something that is dependent on a new Dean coming in. Nevertheless, our vision is to create a centre of excellence, so far as executive education is concerned. We have taken concrete steps to reach our goals and today the Noida campus is running several successful short- and long-term programmes. Our International Programme in Management for Executives (IPMX) is in its 3rd year and Working Managers Programme (WMP) in its 5th year. We have undertaken several management programmes and run successful eMDPs — both as open programmes and in-company ones. In addition, we regularly play host to several leading global business school’s India visits. I believe that management education has to be constantly updated to keep pace with the developments in the global arena. We have already started the revamp process of our existing courses and will shortly increase the intake. In addition, we are looking to complete the “infrastructure development” within the next year and have already started work on building a state-of-the-art convention centre.
What is the response to the online management courses?
The industry response to eMDPs has been excellent and there was a need to increase seats. We have increased the seats by 30 per cent going by the demand from this session. While a large number of people are opting for mid-career programmes, both full time and part-time, there is an even larger number that would like to attend quality programmes, but, cannot because of time, location and other constraints. When we started eMDPs, the idea was to offer this target group a quality module which they could undertake and not lose out on the “personal contact”. With NIIT Imperia, we started to offer General Management and Human Resource Management programmes through video-conferencing. These programmes have been successful and recognised as a great option by the target audience.
What about executive global business management programmes?
We already have our flagship programme — the IPMX, a global programme running successfully at the Noida campus. IPMX offers a complete term at a reputed foreign university and is a global programme in the real term. We keep evaluating new opportunities in terms of gaps that exist in the management learning space and are constantly on the lookout for more offerings that can add value to the industry.
How do you plan to handle the faculty crunch at the campus?
The Noida campus already has 12 full-time faculty members and a total of more than 60 faculty from the Lucknow campus. In addition, we invite adjunct faculty and industry leaders as visiting faculty and experts. There was never a question of a faculty crunch at the Noida campus and we do not foresee any such thing going forward. We have plans to increase the team size but this is to take care of future requirements rather than any faculty crunch issues.