IIT Madras launches first-of-its-kind tech MBA programme for undergraduates

Indian Institute of Technology Madras is launching a first-of-its-kind tech MBA programme for its undergraduate (UG) students from all the engineering streams.

The students taking tech MBA programme will be awarded two degrees - Engineering UG degree (B.Tech.) and Master's degree in Management (MBA).

The programme will be a part of the Five-Year Inter-Disciplinary Dual Degree (IDDD) programmes and is conceptualised by the Department of Management Studies (DOMS), IIT Madras. The Institute is introducing the programme from the Academic Year 2019-20 and it will have an intake of 25-30 students.

Department of Management Studies will offer the foundational tech MBA courses during the third and fourth years of all UG programs. The eligibility criteria for opting for the courses in the fifth year are CGPA, departmental aptitude test and/or personal interview.

"We believe tech MBA program would be a trendsetter academically and a game-changer professionally. We look forward to collaborating with the far-sighted corporations to invest our energies in the development of the next generation millennial talent founded on the pillars of technological depth, managerial breadth and business wisdom," said Professor G. Arun Kumar, Head, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras.

The IDDD programme enables the undergraduate students to utilise the fifth year of the course for specialising in the newly-formulated curricula that integrate and synergizes technology and management disciplines. The uniqueness of the tech MBA lies in its learning outcomes, curriculum design, and pedagogy, which aim to combine the academic rigour with the practices from the organisational trenches.

The Department of Management Studies at IIT Madras formulated the tech MBA programme after due analysis of the emerging talent needs of the global industries, new career opportunities in the digital economy and the evolutionary advancement of management programmes across the world.

The programme aims to impart business acumen to engineering students while inculcating management mindset for handling complex decision-making problems and shaping technology-driven organisational transformation. The curriculum judiciously blends courses from business functions, performance analytics and transformation technologies.

The programme will prepare students for future career options, be it Management Innovators in industries or Thought Leaders in consultancies or technopreneurs in deep technology domains. It will also enable the students to participate in the academic exchange programmes with the world-renowned universities, which evinced interest in offering specially designed courses.