Centre plans to double capacity of IIMs to 20,000 students

The government has planned a major expansion of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in the country, which will double combined student strength at these institutes from 10,000 to 20,000.

The decision was taken at a meeting of all chairmen and directors of IIMs, chaired by union minister for human resource development Prakash Javadekar at the Rajiv Gandhi IIM in Shillong on Tuesday.

"We had a very good, successful and productive meeting of all IIMs directors and chairmen. We met after two years and will now be meeting frequently to discuss specific issues," the minister told reporters after the meeting.

"More students will now get the opportunity to study in the best institutes. The IIM directors will submit their action plans on the expansion of student intake capacity," he added.

The decision comes a few months after the parliamentary standing committee on HRD ministry, in its 274th report, recommended expansion of seats at the IIMs and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) for the development of these institutions, besides a periodical expansion of faculty.

Javadekar also announced expansion of doctoral (PhD) programme to address the shortage of faculty in IIMs. "We discussed expansion of PhD programme by offering more fellowships to students of IIMs. To students in IITs, we have decided to give Prime Minister's Research Fellowship. We will also take the government's approval to give PM scholarship to the best of PhD scholars in IIMs but the final decision will be taken by the cabinet."

The meeting also discussed the need for IIMs to participate in the government's new initiative to develop 20 world class universities / institutes. "We want to create 10 (world class institutes) from the government sector and 10 from the private sector. The IIMs should prepare themselves because world class institutes will be decided by a challenge mode," the HRD minister said.

The IIMs will also participate in the implementation of Swayam, a massive platform for open online courses proposed to be launched soon by the government, Javadekar said. The IIMs will be required to create the content for Swayam which will offer 2,000 courses from Class IX to the post-graduate level.

"The courses will be offered to students free of cost, online and through TV channels. They will comprise lecture materials, mid-exam, final exams and certificates," the minister said.

He said the focus of the institutes and students should be academic in order to be ranked among the best in the world.

"We have started the national ranking framework and it is evaluating the institutes correctly. We have brought our own national ranking framework and, more importantly, we have found that even in international ranking, there is perception about these institutes. So many times, real quality does not reflect in ranking. To address that, we have decided to implement outreach programmes with the alumni Indian diaspora for their active participation and have more foreign students, foreign faculty and exchanges with foreign countries. All these will help in creating the right perception about the Indian institutes and then we will get the right place in international ranking too," he said.

On reservation for scheduled tribe teachers in IIMs, he said, reservation already exists. "I do not know who started all this. It's already in the Constitution and no one can bypass the Constitution," he said.

On frequent disturbances on campuses, he said institutes which used to be disturbed were more disciplined now. "I think collective wisdom has ultimately prevailed," he added.