Students' corner

Dear students,

LAST WEEK WE ASKED: 
Do you think IIMs are right in saying that they should focus on domestic campuses rather than going for international ones?

BEST RESPONSE

IIM should focus on domestic campuses and also they should focus on collaborating with domestic B-schools so that quality of education of these B-schools will improve with guidance and support of IIMs. Also, every talented student flies out to foreign country if he/she is unable to get into premium institutes and India faces problem of brain drain. So if IIMs improve domestic campuses this problem is minimised.

- Sarang Dani, Vishwakarma Institute of Management, Pune

OTHER RESPONSES

The statement is more of a reflection of economy slowdown. Educational quality at IIM is unquestionable as the pull of faculty is excellent and the collaborations with foreign top institutes already exist. Moreover, it is just their physical appearance abroad that is being avoided and not the intellectual one. So taking economic slowdown into consideration the decision seems right for IIMs to focus domestically well and then move abroad later.

- Jimit Parikh, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad

As compared to their foreign counterparts where all the premier B-schools have their campuses in more than one location, IIMs don't. They have made their presence felt in other countries as well, thereby making it possible for students to attach with themselves even while staying in their home country. So it is more of a necessity than a requirement for IIMs to establish themselves on foreign shores or else they are bound to fall back instead of improving their status worldwide.

- Shivam Chhabra, Integral University, Lucknow

Domestic campuses are very significant since the target group here belong to the local region itself. These campuses are also the ultimate platforms where domestic pedagogy of teaching meet with the domestic industry. Whereas international campuses focus more on global level and international degrees. Domestic campuses should be well equipped with good faculty to impart proper training to students in order to make them good managers. Domestic campuses focus more on domestic real world situation which reflects on the local corporate industry as against international campuses which focus more on global business scenario.

- Stephan Rodrigues, ICFAI Business School, Hiranandani, Powai

It is a great disarray to say whether IIMs should serve domestically or have an international presence. It will be a great exposure of knowledge with several research and studies perhaps if they are agree to have an international presence. But the most important thing is to get an excellence in national presence without having the negative deviations in the quality of students. In turn, this excellence may later lead them to have an international presence with a good quality of education & faculties.

- PraveenKumar V Keskar, Siddaganga Institute of Technology (SIT), Tumkur

Focusing on the domestic campuses will help IIMs maintain their reputation and charm. Overseas expansion would just require lot of teachers and dedicated management to maintain IIMs' charm. They should indulge themselves on improving more and create environment like outside in our country, so that our students do not feel a need to go abroad to study.

- Ashish Kumar Sharma, International Maritime Institute, Greater Noida

Before they start catering to the rest of the world, IIMs have enough left to do for students within the country. Once they feel there is not much left to do within the the country, they can go abroad to serve as well.  As of now, they can focus on improving and raising the standard of newly-opened campuses, and can go for even more new campuses.  As far as the standards are concerned, apart from IIM-A other campuses do not  not rank impressively globally. Hence. standards can still be raised to develop more of world class managers and leaders.

- Kushal Bhadani, ICFAI Business School, Mumbai

IIMs will be flooded with quantum of international opportunities if they go global. It will not only facilitate the exchange of new ideas, thoughts and business ideologies, but also bring in a new pool of talent across the countries.The international campuses will add global dimension to the brand IIMs. Most importantly, the new plans will go viral if proper status quo is maintained where these institutes are reeling under the pressure of faculty crunch and implementation of OBC quota.

- Dipika Sahoo, College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar

Setting a global campus requires good faculty pool, adequate fund, quality students, infrastructure, good international ranking. Sadly, all IIMs lack all these attributes except IIM-A which is good only in international raking. Moreover, in India, there is huge demand for quality management education which is mostly unmet because of paucity of seats, faculty crunch, and infrastructure in good B-schools. Keeping in view all the above constraints, IIMs should focus on domestic campuses as this will prepare quality talent pool to be absorbed by industries here.

- Nilaya Mitash Shanker, Shri Ram Swaroop Memorial College of Engineering And Management (SRMCEM), Lucknow

All IIMs are suffering from acute faculty shortage as well as infrastructural challenges due to the increased intakes. Mentoring the seven newly-opened IIMs have added more woes in terms of maintaining the standards and avoid the IIM brand from getting diluted. Although the international rankings of some IIMs may help them to expand globally, the time is still not ripe for it.  It would require huge investments in terms of funds, human resource, time and commitment.

- Prateek Parimal, Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA)

The excellent course contents, distinguished faculty and a procedure which selects the best minds has been instrumental for the unprecedented growth and the phenomenal success of IIMs in India. In such a case to have presence of IIMs abroad requires meticulous efforts to build the same infrastructure with no compromise with courses, finances, faculty, campus, selection procedure (GMAT for abroad). The current cash crunch with the government, faculty shortage, different selection procedure at international locations and several other glitches pose immense problem in building a replicated architecture and if erected will subsequently deteriorate the image of IIMs globally.

- Nandish Agarwal, Galgotias College of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida

Lack of funds, shortage of economic resources and absence of suitable partners are the viable reasons for IIMs' decision to focus on domestic campuses. The faculty crunch at IIMs would worsen if an international campus springs up. Moreover, IIMs collaborate with other business schools, are actively involved in global conferences and student exchange programs to make their presence felt globally. If an international campus fails to attract students or function as is expected then it would dilute the Indian brand internationally leading to a decline in its former ranking.

- Nehal Sharma, Brightlands School, Dehradun

IIMs two reasons for sticking with domestic campuses. Firstly, there is a risk of diluting their brand name. And the other reason is that still IIMs are not enough in the country itself. Lots of students who have potential in them are going for private B-schools. So, the priority is to provide them with more IIMs than going international for the foreigners.

- Sachin Kumar, IBS Pune

IIMs are correct in their approach to put their international expansion plans on the back-burner. Establishing a campus abroad has to be a conscious decision involving huge funds and having abundance of faculty who can match the brand name, and presently IIMs are short of both. So, instead it is more prudent to focus domestically. It would rather be better to attract more quality faculty and introduce more courses based on industry requirements and innovation to try and meet the industry demand and increase the student intake.

- Rahul Gautam, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIIT-Delhi)

IIMs are one of the best B-schools in the world. But are they no.1? The answer is no. So, to be at Rank 1 globally, IIMs need to focus more on themselves. They have to learn from the domestic corporate giants like Ambanis and Adanis where India drives the global corporate culture. But to make our academics global, we need to become global. So IIMs need to bring the global world in India to make the domestic population eligible.

- Shashank Bhatia, IBS Mumbai

The setting up of international campuses require huge economics and a vast pool of good faculty, something which is in shortage with the IIMs. Moving abroad and delivering sub-standard quality of education will only undermine the trust and dilute the brand value of IIMs. Moreover, the decision to focus on domestic campuses is pragmatic as the domestic demand of quality education should be primarily met before venturing abroad.

- Akshay Chadha, NSIT, Delhi

When applying for international degree, a student needs huge amount of money for the course and at times countries like US and UK dont provide jobs for non natives. As a result Indians end up accumulating huge liabilities from banks. However, if students prefer to be their mother land and study here it would create a real asset for the country.

- Ajinkya Suresh Jadhav, Vivekananda Institute of Management, Gulbarga, Karnataka

Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: 
Do you think students should take up summer internships even if they do not get stipend for the same?