IIM Bill 2017: IIMs to Launch New Courses, MoU with Foreign Universities

In December 2017, the Parliament of India passed the IIM Bill 2017 granting greater autonomy to Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Now, IIMs have authority to frame guidelines independently, launch new courses, define syllabus and discontinue the existing courses. The IIM Bill 2017 conferred the ‘ Institutes of National Importance’ to IIMs. 20 IIMs across the country are expected to award degrees instead of diplomas from the next academic session.

Even though the Bill is approved by the Parliament, the implementation of the same will take a couple of months. With the new status and autonomy, IIMs will witness outstanding innovative initiatives on the campus and greater interests from institutes of global importance.

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IIM aspirants expressed their happiness over granting ‘Institute of National Importance’ to IIMs. A commerce graduate pointed that over 2.5 lakh aspirants appear for CAT exam every year, and implementation of IIM Bill is great news for them. International students are also expected to join IIMs next academic session. IIM campuses across the country will become more culturally diverse, expressed the student.

Due to the greater autonomy to IIMs, many problems will be minimised. For instance, the Board of Governors will have the power to appoint Director and Chairperson of the institute. The BoG will have five alumni of the institute. The government will not have any role in the appointment of Chairperson and Director to IIMs . Earlier, HRD Ministry had the power to appoint Director. It led to several problems, as the government had not considered the institute’s vision while making the appointment.

According to a top official of an IIM, the IIM Bill will play an overridden role in strengthening the governance of IIMs. Now, the institutes can invite faculty from aboard and collaborate with international universities. There will be extensive changes including more innovation in the curriculum, he highlighted.

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After the implementation of IIM Bill, the premier institutes can launch more postgraduate and undergraduate courses . A senior official of a popular IIM expressed that he likes specialised Master’s course in Finance and Economics. However, only international universities offer such courses. With the new powers and status, IIMs will be able to offer such specialised courses.

The Bill will also enable the students to tie-up with international universities while studying at IIMs. Earlier, collaborating with a foreign university and starting new courses was a long process. The premier universities had to take permission from HRD Ministry and the entire process was quite hectic. Now, the BoG of IIMs can take the decision and the process will be smooth with no hurdles and restrictions.