The management of education

Updated on: Monday, October 12, 2009

Any new programmes that IIM Lucknow is coming up with?

We are continuously offering new programmes both as electives for postgraduate courses as well as short and long term management development programmes for working executives.
At our Noida campus, we have initiated a postgraduate programme in finance with a dual degree arrangement with McGill University. We are also committed to creating a faculty development centre where we can use our expertise to train faculty for other
B-schools.

How is IIM-Lucknow tackling the recessionary trend in the economy as far as placements go?

All management schools have faced a recessionary trend in the economy as far as placements are concerned. During placements last year, the effect of the economic slowdown was evident but good B-schools were able to sail through.
Moreover, with the recent pay revision, students have shown an increased interest in PSUs this time. PSUs always offered students good profiles but salaries were not comparable with the private sector. This year we hosted more than 14 PSUs, including some Navratnas. There were some 65 offers — the highest across all the IIMs this placement season.

What are your focus areas/goals? What about scholarships?
IIM-Lucknow’s focus would be on research and faculty development. The focus on research would be by offering more facilities and grants to the faculty. We have taken the lead in creating a very robust
fellowship programme and have the largest number of research scholars amongst all the B-schools.
We will look at forging synergistic alliances with top global brands. We are also looking at creating two new centres of excellence at IIM- Lucknow for environment and
sustainable development, and policy research.
In order to provide financial support to needy and meritorious
students, IIM-Lucknow continues to offer a large number of scholarships. During the year 2007-08, Rs 28.8 lakh worth of scholarships were disbursed amongst 46 students.

Are there any plans or tie-ups to collaborate with foreign universities to make your courses more attractive?
The international student exchange is at the forefront in IIM-Lucknow’s efforts towards international exposure and recognition. IIM-L has alliances with prestigious institutions across the globe — spread across four continents and 22 universities. We are also considering increasing interaction and exchange programmes with other top Business Schools globally, that are industry leaders in the global arena.

What are the challenges facing India’s higher education sector? How do you think we can hope to solve these?
The biggest challenge that India’s higher education sector is facing today is that of a faculty crunch. We need to inculcate an atmosphere of innovation and research across
campuses. Better facilities, more sops for research and ingraining a “research-orientation” in the faculty are some steps to take this forward. We also need to encourage
industry-academia collaborations, which could lead to an intellectual stimulation of the faculty, the provision of path-breaking and
topical research to corporates and provide monetary benefits to researchers.

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