What makes the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad special?

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), is one of the most respected institutions of higher education in India. When we…

August 26, 2020

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), is one of the most respected institutions of higher education in India. When we think of IIMA, we think of its highly successful alumni, exceptional placements, its disproportionately high contribution to the corporate leadership. These all are significant achievements of IIMA, and we can’t deny them, but today, I would like to discuss about IIMA from a different lens, I would like to discuss not on behalf of the students but on behalf of the faculty. I would like to talk about what IIMA offers to its faculty, who are the biggest contributors to the success of IIMA and work very hard to ensure the highest quality of education is imparted to their students.

IIMA is known to be one of the toughest B-School to get into for students, it takes somewhere around 550 students every year across its three long-duration residential programs PGP (2-year MBA), PGP‑FABM (2‑year MBA in Agri-Business Management), and PGPX (1-year MBA). However, it hires only a handful of faculty every year, for example, IIMA has hired only eight faculty in the year 2018–19[1, p. 158], whereas it has hired only thirty-eight faculty members in period of 2014 to 2019. Therefore, it clearly shows that IIMA is way more selective when it comes to hiring a faculty. Now, since it’s a fact that only the best of the best make it the faculty block of IIMA, it understands that they need constant intellectual stimulation and in order to achieve this, IIMA provides a plethora of benefits to its faculty to pursue what they are good at. IIMA understands that teaching is the most important thing at the institute but it’s not the only thing a faculty might enjoy, therefore IIMA encourages research and consultancy for its faculty and is quite flexible with the rules.

I spoke to more than 25 faculty of all vintages and backgrounds, some who joined just a year back to some who have retired way back in 2002 and some who graduated at IIMA to some who graduated at other IIMs and yet some more who comes from non-IIM background; to understand what IIMA has to offer as an employer. I also spoke to some of the ex-directors of IIMA and some of the current directors of sister IIMs who were at IIMA as a faculty, student, or both.

I asked each one of them about the strengths of IIMA and what makes it the phenomenal institute it is, each of these faculty had their views, according to some we get some of the smartest and the most hardworking students of our country, yet to some, it was the unparalleled legacy we enjoy and its advantages. But there was one single thing which everyone agreed is the egalitarian system of IIMA and the academic freedom it brings. IIMA has immense trust on its faculty member and allows them to take to choose their path and supports them with all the resources it has. IIMA provides complete freedom to its faculty to design their pedagogy and how to deliver it. It’s evident from the fact that IIMA offers some of the most unconventional electives to its students. An example of this is a course called Shodh Yatra, which is a unique offering of its type in India and probably in the world, in which a group of students travels to a far-flung area of the country to understand their issues and suggest and help solve their issues. One of the senior faculty told me this when I asked her view on the treatment of faculty at IIMA:

“There’s a culture of believing you without one having to prove himself. People assume that every member in the system is great in his/her own way, they’ll keep doing what will make them better over time. This attitude brings in a lot of expectations and puts in a lot of positive affect in the people and encourages them to do well.”

IIMA is a faculty-driven institute and the seeds of the egalitarian system were laid down by the very first director of the institute Mr. Ravi Matthai, who never took any decision without consulting the faculty, an excellent tradition which is followed till date. At IIMA a junior most faculty and the director of the institute are treated the same, it’s your voice which matters not your designation in the system. One of the professors who joined just a couple of years back put it this way:

“Egalitarian environment of faculty, makes it a great place to work for faculty and usually they are fairly creative which translates into a great student experience.”

IIMA has also supported its faculty in their personal initiatives, for example, it allowed Professor Anil Kumar Gupta to pursue his passion for grassroots innovations and today he’s known across the globe for his pioneering work in this field. IIMA also allowed him to run relief work from IIMA campus and provided him with all the resources in 2001 during the Gujrat earthquake relief work. Yet another example is that when a fairly new faculty suggested an idea to have an archive of IIMA and he was immediately made the head of the project. This is what Professor Anil Kumar Gupta has to say:

“The institutional support from IIMA for faculty is unparalleled, no other institute in the world seems to provide this level of freedom and support to it members be it faculty or students.

There’s a huge amount of academic and personal freedom and one can say anything to anyone without affecting their personal or professional relationship. This is one of the rare things of the culture of IIMA and seen in very few places across the globe.”

IIMA always believed in its faculty members and has invested in them heavily and it’s probably the only institute where a person who joined as a Research Associate, finally went on to become the director of IIMA (Professor Jahar Saha). At IIMA, all the activities and processes to nurture an academic talent and to reward them for doing good, brings out the best in them and therefore, one shouldn’t be surprised to know that IIMA has also provided a disproportionately high share of academic leaders to its sister IIMs, as all the major IIMs have historically had multiple directors from IIMA, and four of it faculty were bestowed with Padam awards for their contributions to the society which is probably the highest number by a single institute.

All these unique treatment couples with the love for teaching and dedication towards the institution bring out the best in the faculty and the results of the same are visible as the successful professionals IIMA has produced over the decades.

Reference

Originally published at https://www.rahulrajsharma.com on August 26, 2020.