The board of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) today accepted the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s (MHRD’s) recommended salary package but reiterated it had reservations over the issue of faculty promotions.
IIM-A Director Samir Barua, who met reporters here to discuss the outcome of the board of governors’ recent meet in Udaipur, said: “While both the faculty members and the board have approved the MHRD’s recommendations in principle, we still have reservations on restrictions on faculty promotions. Our arguments with the MHRD are not on the monetary recommendations. We are going to raise the issues of authority and position with the ministry. The dialogue is still on. Meanwhile, the faculty is ready to implement the salary recommendations after a month.”
Barua, however, insisted that unlike the manner in which the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) went about the issue, “we want to make our requests in a dignified way as we are a responsible public institution. The IITs themselves are a divided house. Within the protesting IITs, there are faculty voices which are of dissent. So, it is difficult to say whether we will go with the IITs on the pay revision issue,” he added.
The premier institute will, instead, take up the matter with the MHRD through the Committee on Future Directions, which will prepare a blueprint and write to the ministry. “Privately-funded institutions have no restrictions, while we work under restrictions on compensation, choice of students, expansion, collaboration and joint degrees. The government should free us from these restrictions, and give institutes like IIM-A, IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta a period of five years and then decide on our autonomy, based on our performances,” he said.
When asked about the possibility of IIMs converting into universities, Barua said: “By the word ‘university’, we mean to highlight possibility of incorporating multiple disciplines, rather than offering pure degrees. This can be done by networking and collaborating with other institutes specialising in other streams. While we have not taken any stand on this matter, such a partnership with other streams like law or art is one of the options we are considering.”
Barua also pointed on the possible competition from foreign universities coming to India in the near future. “Greater autonomy is needed for public institutions like IIMs to compete with foreign institutions. If we are given a level playing field without the present restrictions in terms of fees, compensation, course structure and student intake, there will be no threat from foreign institutes,” he added.
Apart from autonomy, the board also talked about uncertainty of setting up a satellite campus in Hyderabad in the wake of the new government in Andhra Pradesh (AP). "The question is not whether we are ready to set up a satellite campus in Hyderabad. Rather, it is about AP government's preparedness to push the Hyderabad campus project," said Barua.
At present, IIM-A has around 90 faculty members, of which eight were added a year and a half ago. “Faculty expansion is a part of the board's agenda. We will add more faculty as and when we get appropriately qualified people,” Barua reiterated.
