‘IIMs on threshold of becoming university’: IIM Kozhikode Director on UG expansion, future of management courses

With IIMs bracing for offerings at the undergraduate levels in programmes like management studies, data science, and economics, Director of IIM Kozhikode Debashis Chatterjee spoke to The Indian Express about branching out from the traditional postgraduate programmes in management that the IIMs have been known for so far.

IIM Kozhikode launched a Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) programme this year with 110 students at the institute's Kochi campus – students major in management with a choice of minors in subjects including economics and public policy, and artificial intelligence and machine learning. IIM Sambalpur launched two UG programmes this year – one in management and public policy, and another in data science and AI, while IIM Bangalore will launch UG programmes in economics and data science next year, and IIM Sirmaur launched one in management studies last year.

Prof Chatterjee alluded to a “slow disenchantment with MBA (courses) across the global spectrum” and said the IIMs were on the threshold of looking more like universities.

IIM Kozhikode introduced an undergraduate course this year. What were the aims and purposes of introducing UG courses at an IIM?

We were witnessing a gradual, slow disenchantment with the MBA across the global spectrum, though in India, the story is still very vibrant, and the number of applications far outnumber the numbers we can take in. But we were sensing that…students wanting to invest two years of their precious life in the middle of their careers or the threshold of their careers…they are pretty picky about what they get in these two years. We thought that we have to reimagine management education from the bottom up, from the foundation level.

IIMs are second-hand car dealers as far as learners are concerned–they are more or less finished when they come to us.

So, if we could introduce management thinking to young minds at an early stage, we can build the agile thinkers who are interdisciplinary, culturally grounded, innovation-driven.

The main themes of NEP are flexibility, research orientation, and holistic learning.

Unlike the Integrated Programme in Management-a five-year programme after class 12 that many IIMs provide-the Bachelor of Management Studies we are offering is a standalone, full-fledged professional undergraduate degree. If you had to leave the programme after three years, you get a degree without the honours. The honours (degree) comes with research, which is going to prime students for careers in multiple places including industry. This is designed to blend academic exploration with preparation for industry roles.

You also said that there is a 'dis-enchantment' with the MBA course. How do you think it needs to evolve to meet prevailing needs?

Now, MBA is not a steady state programme. You have to develop that which technology cannot do. And if you look at the standard management programme, they are neither here nor there. We have to now adapt to the changing dynamics of how AI and generative AI will reshape what happens to industries and enterprises, and how we are going to respond to that by tweaking our curriculum…not just to AI but to the environment and geopolitical dynamics of…war, disruption of supply chain.

All that comes into play. which was not part of the standard protocols of an MBA program.

How is an undergraduate program at an IIM likely to be different from a UG programme elsewhere?

The difference is, it's going to be strongly research-driven. It's going to be an interdisciplinary set of curricula, integrating management, humanities, and technology. And it's going to have flexible pathways. You can have majors and minors with honors, with research. You're exposed to emerging areas like AI, psychology, public policy, big data, sustainability. The emphasis is on critical thinking, creativity, and global perspective and ethical leadership. The focus is going to be on developing holistic culturally aware and socially responsible leaders. But most importantly, we are bringing industry readiness and strong preparation for higher studies.

Are there other plans to offer other undergraduate courses?

BMS was the first step in expanding our undergraduate vision.

NEP 2020 encourages multidisciplinary institutions. IIM-K is exploring models that go with that spirit. Focus now is strengthening the BMS before scaling up. Therefore, any further UG offering will be done on the basis of academic need, relevance to society, and institutional capacity. We are happy to have somebody majoring in economics in BMS. But if they want a professional economics program, we will consider that once our campus is built. IIMs are no longer IIMs as standalone business schools. We are on the threshold of becoming ‘IIM university’. And rightly so, because the demand-supply is skewed in our direction. We have to accommodate a lot more bright people than we can currently. Are there financial compulsions behind introducing more courses at the IIMs? At IIMs that have not had the benefit of substantial government funding in the beginning…those compulsions may be there. But for us this is not out of compulsion. This is a conscious choice because we decided that we need to grow the IIM brand into university status. There is a campus, which is almost at the threshold of commissioning in Kochi. But we are also trying for a much bigger campus for 1000 students. So we have to generate those funds, but we are not dependent on it. We will have different cohorts of 50 each for a thousand undergraduate students. That scale is important because that's the basic structure of all major universities. We have 110 undergraduate students now. So, we are going to grow 10 times from here, maybe in the next 5 to 10 years.