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When the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore, launched its five-year integrated programme in management (IPM) in 2011, it drew widespread criticism. Three years later, the institute has seen an unprecedented increase in the number of applications for the 120-seat IPM course.
“This year, we received 12,000 applications for 120 seats. That is a 1:100 ratio almost that of Common Admission Test,” said Rishikesha T Krishnan, director, IIM-Indore.
IPM admits students after Class XII or higher secondary or equivalent from various schools in India. A residential programme, the eligibility criteria for IPM is 60 per cent aggregate marks at higher secondary. Students meeting the minimum criteria are called for aptitude test, which is followed by a personal interview.
After the completion of five years of study, students are awarded an Integrated Diploma in Management. The tuition fee for the first three years is Rs 3 lakh per annum and for the next two years it is Rs 13 lakh — a total of Rs 22 lakh. IIM-Indore’s two-year flagship post graduate programme in management also costs Rs 13 lakh.
IIM-Indore plans to strengthen the programme, which it says has opened up a very good alternative option for students after school.
“This is one programme that has caught people’s imagination. We already have a regular management programme and this has an equal potential,” said Krishnan.
Although IIM-Indore is not looking at expanding the programme at other destinations — it has campuses in Dubai and Mumbai — it would look at expanding the programme’s capacity at Indore at a later stage.
“IPM is a resource-incentive programme. If we enhance capacity by 60 students, we need to create infrastructure for 300 students for the next five years. The first batch will graduate in 2016 and we will take a call on increasing capacity after that,” said Krishnan.
IIM Indore is planning to strengthen IPM by looking at more innovative exchange programmes. “We need to build faculty for this programme. A lot of faculty that comes to teach is visiting faculty. We need to build our own faculty base,” said Krishnan.
Currently, the institute has a faculty strength of 73. This includes faculty members of IIM Indore, resource persons/visiting faculties from other colleges, industry experts, and retired faculty members from Indian universities. IIM Indore plans to hire more faculty members shortly, which would take the strength to 80 next year and 90 the year after that.
IPM consists of 15 terms spread over five years, with each year having three terms of three months each. The broad design of the programme includes education in natural sciences, liberal arts, and humanities and social sciences setting.
In the first three years, students are taught mathematics, statistics, economics, sociology and psychology, among other subjects. They also dabble in liberal arts subjects such as sculpture, fine arts and music - areas where IIM Indore does not have any expertise. For these subjects, the institute uses external professionals to teach students.
For sociology, political science and psychology, the institute is planning to hire faculty members.
