IIM-A to open up faculty position for alumni

Bags board approval for 'Professor of Management Practice' position

In a bid to enhance alumni involvement with the institute, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is planning to open up a new faculty position for alumni with no academic background. Known as 'Professor of Management Practice', it will be a full-time faculty position for a minimum of three to five years.

"We have bagged the Board of Governors' (BoG) approval for opening up a position called Professor of Management Practice. This type of faculty position is for those alumni who don't have traditional academic background but have rich industry experience and want to give 3-5 years of their life for full-time teaching," Ashish Nanda, director, IIM-A said while briefing media here on Thursday.

The move is part of the institute's multiple efforts to grow alumni involvement with the institute.

"We are trying to bring alumni more often on campus for student interactions. These can be in four ways. It can be through speaker series, teaching session on an existing course or through mentoring at the incubation centre. The fourth one can be by teaching courses as a faculty for which we are planning to open this position," Nanda said.

The institute last year initiated IIM-A Alumni Young Achievers Award for recognising alumni under the age of 45 for outstanding achievements in various areas of management. This year, the institute presented the awards to Abhinay Choudhari, Co-founder, Big Basket.com, and Neeraj Aggarwal, Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group, India. While Choudhari graduated from the PGP SPA (now FABM) class of 1997, Aggarwal graduated from the flagship PGP 1999 batch.

"IIM-A's vision is that we educate leaders of enterprises. This award honours alumni who, at a young age, have demonstrated leadership in their respective fields. In honouring them, we also acknowledge the diverse and significant contributions our alumni are making in various walks of life," said Nanda.

Meanwhile, the institute is also ramping up on visits to several local alumni chapters across the globe such as New York and London, apart from Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai. "We are also trying to set up a Global Alumni Council for sharing best practices across chapters. Each local chapter will be a member of this council," said Nanda.