Diploma or degree?

The IIMs may be signing away independence

The country's top private business schools have genuine reasons to be concerned about recent developments. A proposed law would, among other things, give the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) powers to confer degrees instead of the current postgraduate diploma in management (PGDM). The Bill, when passed, will mainly benefit the IIM alumni applying abroad for research opportunities. Currently, an IIM alumnus or alumna has to request his or her respective institute to provide a certificate saying that the diploma is equivalent to an MBA degree in India. Similarly, students of the fellowship programme, which is equivalent to a PhD, have always faced a problem abroad explaining that it carries the same weight. In that sense, the leading private schools are right in their perception that they have been denied a level playing field with the IIMs, as their students will have to continue depending on the certificates provided by their respective institutes to establish their credentials abroad. If the Bill becomes an Act, the human resource development ministry would do well to listen to these B-schools, some of whom have built a formidable name for themselves with respect to the quality of their PGDM programmes and the quality of students.

But the larger question is whether the Bill was necessary at all. Have some of the IIMs, which supported the Bill, unwittingly opened the door to government intervention, in their pursuit of a marginal benefit? The diplomas they offer have already been recognised globally because of the quality of education they impart, which has been possible for two reasons: they attract high-quality students and they enjoy a high degree of autonomy. What will help improve the status or enhance the competitive edge of the IIMs and the leading private B-schools is not a government-recognised degree, but the success rate of their students in placements and of their alumni in the professional world of managers.

The Bill raises suspicion for one simple reason: the ministry could have brought a Bill exclusively to allow B-schools to grant degrees with no other change in their administrative structure. But the Bill also proposes significant changes in the way the IIMs would function, prompting a former IIM director to say that it would make the institutes subservient to the government. Backers of the Bill, however, say such concerns are misplaced as the Bill introduces a provision under which the appointment of directors and chairpersons will have to be approved by the "visitor" - the president of India - and not by anybody in the government. Besides, the IIMs will be governed by a coordination forum on the lines of the Council of the Indian Institutes of Technology, but with greater representation from the institutes instead of politicians and bureaucrats. Either way, if indeed the IIMs are made to give up their autonomy as feared, there is no reason why the government should also not allow leading private business schools to offer degree courses.