IIM-Ahmedabad plans to strengthen faculty

The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the country's premier business school, has decided to expand its faculty strength to support its ever expanding academic activities.

IIM-A is planning to increase its faculty strength from the present 82 members to 100 within two years and further to 120 by 2011.

Bakul Dholakia, director, IIM-A, said the institute has been expanding its reach through various short-term and long"�term programmes. IIM-A had increased its faculty strength from 75 in 2002 to 82 in 2005.

However, the number of student intake has jumped from 425 in 2002 to 620 in 2005, which included a separate post-graduate programme in agri"�business management with 30 seats.

Along with regular increase in the number of seats for the PGP programme, the institute has also added a number of new short-term management development programmes for working executives during the last three years.

"As against the new recruitment of 18 faculty members, the institute has added nearly 195 seats for its various programmes. This along with other additional short-term courses initiated during the last three years have put additional strain on the existing faculty resources," said Dholakia.

New recruitments would not only help IIM-A keep its existing programmes in shape but also provide support in planning future programmes.

"We plan to add new management development programmes along with a few new full-time programmes in near future. All that would require support from the faculty," said Dholakia.

Although the decision to increase the faculty strength has been taken by the IIM-A board, finding qualified faculty members is not easy, says Dholakia. Stringent qualifying norms along with the government-controlled salary structure makes IIM-A faculty position not an attractive proposition, admits Dholakia.

"We are looking for Ph D candidates with some years of international work as well as teaching experience, and you don't get candidates with this profile at throwaway prices," says Dholakia.

To find a way out, Dholakia says, "At IIM-A, we promote the brand value of the institute and make it our USP. We may not be able to offer new recruits a world-class remuneration, but we certainly offer the work experience associated with a world-class management institute."

Till the time it could recruit new members, the institute is offering short-term assignments to visiting faculty from overseas and taking the services of some of its retired faculty members.

The visiting faculty has helped the institute fill the gap for the time being. However, a long-term solution lies only in strengthening the faculty, says Dholakia.