Will 7 new IIM's make a difference?

Well it's been quite some time that I wrote. Though I had even barely started but then one I was too lazy to write and second was not in the correct mood.

Anyhow, I just read the news that the government has proposed opening of 7 new IIM's in different regions including the state I lived in for 20 years Haryana. This made me thinking that do we actually need 7 new IIM's? Will the new IIM's make any difference?

There has already been a debate that this will dilute the IIM brand to which I partially agree. But the main point is that spending 1000 crore INR on opening institutes is it judicious or just a political gimmick trying to dissuade the political allies.

There are thousands of management institutes & colleges which are being run by the government universities. These Uni's give a MBA degree since they are a university but they hardly make any difference to the personality & thinking of the students.

The old IIM's (barring the new ones in Indore, Kozhikode etc) hone the skills of the students, they make them understand the business world, open their minds and allow them to have a different point of view. On the other hand these university b-schools just dish out management grads & degrees without even thinking what are they teaching to their students.

Let's take an example of Kurukshetra university which runs 5-6 management courses in its main campus under different departments and then add to it various affiliated institutes. Even in the main campus the students are just mugging up the books to just clear the exams. They are not made to focus on the practical part and being away from the main industrial hubs the industry interaction is bare minimum rendering them ill equipped for the real world.

I feel the same might start happening with the new IIM's. How will one maintain the similar standard. And where will the students get the exposure while sitting in Srinagar or in Shillong.

Shockingly, even institutes which are closer to industrial hubs are not able to set any standards. I once took some guest lectures in consumer behavior in a government run school in Noida. And I made the mistake of starting my class with a case. Surprisingly for me though, not a single student knew what the subject was all about. They actually wanted the teacher or a visiting faculty to spoon feed them rather than applying their minds to solve problems.

This is a deep malaise which is now eating our education system like termites. We are slowly loosing the edge. Every year lakhs of engineers & management grads are dished out who are barely equipped to work. If this goes on the famed Indian education system will die.

The government think tanks are just trying to cash in on the brands and not just apply their minds to create new brands. Look at the US of A whom everyone follows then you see there are not many campuses of the same school. In fact there are so many good schools and people are still working on to create new and better schools.

So instead of wasting 1000 crore of rupees on opening new institutes the same amount should be spent on improving the standards of the current schools. Try to build new brands. Equip the students with new techniques rather than spoiling their careers by making them mugging machines and incompetent for the corporate world.

Hope someone will listen.... Mr Sibal?