Why did the NITIE seek the IIM tag?
One reason was that we didn’t have degree-awarding status. This was the main bottleneck. We were not able to clearly award MBA or MTech, or MS degrees. Our degrees were PGDIE (Postgraduate Diploma in Industrial Engineering) and PGDIM (Postgraduate Diploma in Industrial Management) and fellowships which are not so well perceived abroad or even in India. There are many new HRs in companies who think only MBA is management degree.Second was the kind of freedom that comes with being an autonomous IIM —the liberty of offering degree courses, aligning with new initiatives. Decisionmaking becomes very easy. The biggest change will come about the brand because our catchment area will enlarge. When the number of IIMs became 20, most of the students who used to come to the NITIE started migrating to those institutes. Now it will be good to attract the best talent, take up newer areas and bridge the gap between technology and management. So, our new name will get us a new focus, new attention and a new look.
Besides the name, what will change at the NITIE when it becomes IIM Mumbai?
First, we have to make some changes in our admission pattern that was earlier open only for engineers but will now be open to non-engineering graduates too. We are going to have three programmes: MBA—Operations and Supply Chain Management, General MBA Programme and MBA—Sustainability Management. In all these programmes, we shall try to give more weight to techbased management, digitisation, newer decision-making techniques, AI, machine learning and other types of computing that are going to play a big role in corporate affairs. We will also have a lot of executive programmes and online programmes because only that way will we become self-sufficient to take care of the current needs and aspirations of the people.In a city that is the financial capital of the country, there are many B schools. How does a new IIM work for the industry and the students?
Mumbai is full of professionals of high calibre. We have a very good plan to attract most of them by covering topics of their interest and choice. It is also for students who are coming here for particular disciplines. I want to highlight the finance and fintech courses that we have in mind and we have already made a move. We are going to have an MoU with the NSE. We are going to have a joint programme of one-year duration with the NSE. We shall have similar programmes with other organisations and agencies for executives. Also, we will find a pool of experts from corporates. They will be part of our faculty system. They can give lectures on their topic of interest. So we will get some edge over the others. We need trained manpower, technologically advanced manpower, to deal with the new problems.
Do you think the IIM brand will help you attract better faculty?
There is no doubt about that. Many people did not apply to us because we were not an IIM. But now, the moment we give an advertisement, I think, they will be attracted towards us.
What is your faculty strength now? Are you short of faculty members?
We have around 20-25 visiting faculty members from very good companies. At present, our faculty strength is 59, but we have to take it to at least 85-90. We are attracting five-seven professors from abroad. We are collaborating with other institutions—we have a partnership with IIT Patna and IIT-Delhi where we are running one-year programmes with them. Now we are going to have a one-year, dual-degree programme with them.
The NITIE is ranked seventh in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). Will the IIM brand help you improve the ranking?
In the NIRF ranking, there is one component called perception. It’s the lowest for us at 19. Even IIMs that were built around five-six years ago have a perception of 29, 30 or 40. With better perception, our rank will improve automatically.
Do you see any impact on placements because of the IIM status?
Just so you are asking, there is a company that I don’t want to name but it had not been here for the last seven years. However, yesterday it came and did the interview.
What are the challenges you see in the next one year?
Immediately, our challenges are infrastructure and maintenance of the campus. We have to hire some very credible agencies with permission from the board and ministry so that this becomes one of the most easily accessible facilities for students and faculty. Second, we have to hire people from different systems to NITIE and we have to strike a fine balance between our legacy system and this new system. In the meantime, we also have to increase our revenues to become self-reliant and not depend on the government support we are getting.
What kind of support are you expecting from the industry?
Firstly, the industry is helping us a lot by taking our students in big numbers—so that’s an aspect we should continue with them. Secondly, we expect them to have collaborations with us for startups and entrepreneurship programmes because innovation is a very big area for us. We currently have a provision of Enterprise Lab where we want to call industry experts and have teams of students generate new ideas. We want more and more such collaborations to take place.
Will you be changing your fee structure? How comfortable are you with your financial position? Will you be going to the industry to raise funds?
At present, our fee is the lowest among all the B-Schools in the country, `6.5 lakh and `7.5 lakh per year. The moment we become an IIM, an amount of about `65-70 crore that we are getting from the government will be reduced. So, we will have to raise this money through many sources, including running more executive courses. We have to manage in such a way that we should have sufficient funds to carry out our operations. I may not be able to tell you the exact amount (of the new fee), but it will not be very exorbitant like what you find in many other B-Schools. It should be affordable to people, with facilities provided for bank loans and all such things.
