Moving on the path of changes and innovation IIM Ahmedabad has taken a new initiative by creating a new faculty position ‘Professor of Management Practice’ which will be filled up by non PhD holders drawn from Corporate world, executives and government officers who have a passion for teaching and plan to make it a career for next few years.
The new faculty position is different from visiting faculty and is proposed to be a full time teaching role for those interested in a serious full time career in academics. Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad is to offer the opportunity to such senior people of the corporate and government who have many years of experience in the relevant area. The interested persons should have the inclination not to continue with their current jobs and responsibilities till such time they are engaged as ‘Professor of Management Practice’ since the faculty position at IIM Ahmedabad would be a full time job. The academic commitment of such people with IIM Ahmedabad would be from 3 to 5 years duration, during which they are supposed not to go back to their earlier profession.
The number one B school of India, IIM Ahmedabad has been applauded for such an innovative move. Other IIMs may hire non-PhD faculty members but the condition remains that they should finish their research and PhD in 3 years time at the maximum else they may not be full time faculty.
No quotas or reservations are proposed for the faculty position as the professionals drawn from relevant field will teach electives in the area of their expertise. Shortly IIM Ahmedabad plans to place the requirement for such positions.
13 new faculty members have been appointed at IIM-Ahmedabad since January 2014 in fields like economics, marketing, production and quantitative methods. At present IIM Ahmedabad has 93 full-time faculty members. The teacher student ratio at IIM Ahmedabad is considered better than many other B schools. The faculty members at IIM Ahmedabad in the areas like finance and accounting, information systems, business policy, marketing, organisational behaviour, personnel and industrial relations, production and quantitative methods are considered matchless.
Sharing about the proposal, Prof Arvind Sahay, professor marketing and international business, and dean, alumni and external relationships at IIM Ahmedabad says “The new positions that we are creating, are aimed towards consolidating our connect with the industry and the society; and will be helpful for our students as they can learn from the experiences of these leaders in their field”.
Applauding the innovative idea of IIM Ahmedabad, Dr Bakul Dholakia, former director IIM Ahmedabad and present director International Management Institute, New Delhi says “Director Ashish Nanda and professor Arvind Sahay have put in place a formal structure of engaging the industry for a full time position without compromising the standards of recruitments. It will be a win-win for all, will make the pedagogy contemporary and contextual and the nomenclature will maintain the dignity of senior leaders who might be seriously considering a career in academics."
It is expected that the implementation of this proposal will help other IIMs to address faculty challenges. Students at IIM Ahmedabad will also get an opportunity to learn from the experiences of the leaders in their respective areas. When corporate leaders, government officials and regulators are teaching students, it could make them better leaders of tomorrow.
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad is going to conduct CAT 2015 after a gap of 5 years. CAT 2015 will be conducted in the convenership of Prof T Bandyopadhyay, faculty and admission chair at IIM Ahmedabad. It is expected the coming CAT 2015 might bring about more changes.
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