Demand for Hybrid Management Course Increases at IIMs
A rise in demand for the hybrid management courses of IIMs has been noted this year. These courses make it easy for interested candidates to learn while conveniently carrying on with their jobs.
A sudden rise has been observed in the number of applicants for courses of hybrid management at IIMs in India. The hybrid courses are a mix of online as well as face to face classes. This is in turn pushing the top business schools of India to expand and grow their courses.
Such hybrid courses enable a person to study while working. They can hold their jobs and complete the course as well. The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM A) has received 709 applications for these courses for the session of 2018-2020. It is a sharp rise from the number of applications received by the institute in the previous session which was 468. These stats were shared by the institute's Chairperson of ePGP programme, Biju Varkkey.
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A similar trend can be seen in other IIMs too. There was a rise of 50% in queries regarding the hybrid programmes at IIM Kozhikode this year. This year, the institute has had an intake of 450 students for the e-mode programmes of the duration of one and two years.
Despite technology providing enough leverage for scaling up these courses and programmes, the basic challenge faced is the shortage of faculty. The Dean of academic affairs of IIM Kozhikode, Anandakuttan B Unnithan, said that it is easier to scale up hybrid courses as compared to the campus programmes because of advanced technology and better and cheaper internet access to everyone. What constraints the growth is the unavailability of the required number of high-quality teachers.
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The dean of external relations and new initiatives at IIM Calcutta, Prashant Mishra, said that the demand of these hybrid programmes has increased because it allows individuals to get management education of high quality while conveniently attending the course without having to leave their jobs. IIM Calcutta offers 23 programmes for people who want to study while doing their jobs. They are delivered via online mediums and direct to devise platforms in which the candidates do not have to travel to centers allotted by institutes.