IIM Bill 2015: IAABS submits Memorandum to MHRD; demands status at par with IIMs for top PGDM schools

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
October 21, 2015
IAABS after organizing B-Schools Summit with Fr. E Abraham S.J., Director, XLRI as its President has submitted a Memorandum on October 11, 2015 to Ms Smriti Irani Minister of HRD
The facility of offering MBA by IIMs as per IIM Bill 2015 should also be extended to PGDM B schools IAABS to MHRD

Indian Association of Autonomous Business Schools (IAABS)  after organizing B-Schools Summit with Fr. E Abraham S.J., Director, XLRI  as its President has submitted a Memorandum on October 11, 2015  to Ms Smriti Irani Minister of HRD, Government of India and has demanded autonomy to award MBA degree and level playing field at par with IIMs.

The memorandum is signed by Fr. E Abraham S.J., Director, XLRI  as President of IAABS; Dr Bakul Dholakia, Director General IMI & former Director IIM Ahmedabad and  Dr. C.P. Srimali, Director MDI, Gurgaon as Vice Presidents of IAABS.

Earlier before submitting the charter of demands to MHRD IAABS organized 2-day conference on October 9 & 10, 2015 to discuss and deliberate on the possible promulgation of the IIM-MBA Bill at XIME Bangalore. Prof. J. Philip, President XIME & Former Director IIM Bangalore played a central role in convening the meeting and steering the movement.

Prof J Philip conveyed the message to MHRD without mincing the words “While we have no special view on the Government’s initiative to give degree granting rights to the IIMs, it should not in any way adversely affect the operation of the PGDM schools, which have served the nation so eminently and eloquently all these years.  The PGDM schools have given to Indian Management Education, quality, respectability and innovativeness.  They are in a way at the vanguard of Indian Management Education.  The employability of PGDM graduates would at least be twice as much as that of MBA graduates from the university system.  This distinctive contribution of the PGDM schools must be recognized”.

Key Demands of IAABS
The signed memorandum to MHRD by the Directors of top PGDM schools in India contains following demands

-- Award autonomy to all the PGDM B-schools who have been in operation since the year 2000 and to other B-schools that have been granted autonomous status by UGC pre or post 2000.
-- The facility of offering MBA by IIMs as per IIM Bill 2015 should also be extended to PGDM B-schools that have been established with considerable investment and have proved to be comparable to IIMs.
-- The regulatory and developmental body of PGDM/MBA schools should be the ‘All India Board of Management Studies’ (AIBMS) which has been in existence since mid 1950s.
-- Allow the PGDM system to operate with its new status (Autonomous) at least for 3 years, so that they could adjust better to the post IIM-MBA scenario.
-- The current system of yearly approval of PGDM programmes is redundant and to be discontinued since even the reputed B-schools of long standing have to seek AICTE approval on yearly basis.
-- Accreditation system should be opened to International accrediting agencies such as AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA, ACBSP, SAQS and IACBE
-- Withdraw the controversial and debilitating notification dated December 28, 2010 issued by AICTE as it sought to impose unnecessary and unwarranted restrictions on the PGDM system.

Stage set in IAABS Summit at XIME
The B-School summit held at XIME in collaboration with Karnataka Association of Autonomous Business Schools (KAABS) discussed in detail the discriminatory features in proposed IIM Bill 2015 that could make adverse impact on PGDM schools.

Corporate leaders, top academicians, former directors of IIMs and present Directors of Highly ranked XLRI, MDI, IMI, TAPMI, XIME among others  raised their voice against the anticipated  biased approach against private B-schools in IIM Bill.

Prominent among them were Dr. Samuel Paul, Former Director- IIM Ahmedabad;  Dr. R. Natarajan, Former Chairman- AICTE; Dr. N Sambandham, Chairman AIBMS; Dr. Bakul Dholakia, Director General -IMI (Former Director – IIM Ahmedabad); Dr. C.P. Srimali, Director MDI, Gurgaon; Dr. Abad Ahmed, Former Director, FMS, Delhi; Dr. A K Sengupta, Director, SEISCOMS (Former Director, S P Jain Institute of Management; Dr. Bibek Banerjee, Former Director, IMT Ghaziabad; Dr. Devi Singh, Vice Chancellor, FLAME, Pune (Former Director – IIM Lucknow); Dr. R C Natarajan, Director TAPMI, Manipal; Dr. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Former Director, IIM-Kolkata; Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, Wellingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai & Bangalore; Dr. Y.K.Bhushan, Director-IBS, Mumbai and Prof. J Philip, President XIME (Former Director IIM Bangalore) among others.

The conference chaired by Fr. E Abraham S.J., Director, XLRI- Xavier School of Management and President of IAABS brought together distinguished Directors of leading autonomous, private PGDM Schools from all over the country, eminent former IIM directors and leading management educationists to discuss and review the present situation and make a request to the Government to protect the interests of private, autonomous PGDM Schools and ensure a level-playing field purely based on merit.

It was the unanimous opinion at the conference that the biased MBA Bill would disrupt the equilibrium  of management education system in India since it does not provide a level playing ground for private autonomous management institutes and with this bill government has gone against its own decades- long policy of encouraging PGDM institutes  evolve as beacons of excellence

IAABS - Indian Association of Autonomous Business Schools was founded on June 16, 2014 and registered in Madras with Fr. E. Abraham SJ, Director XLRI as the first President. The main objective of the Association is to establish a network of PGDM/Autonomous Management institutions engaged in education, training and research in India and also to contribute to the development of management education in all aspects. The founding institutions included: XLRI, MDI, IMT Ghaziabad, TAPMI Manipal, XIME Bangalore, Balaji Institute of Modern Management, Pune and PSG Coimbatore. This was the First Indian B-Schools Summit by IAABS Chaired by Fr. E Abraham S.J., Director, XLRI- Xavier School of Management and President of IAABS

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