Faculty of Management Studies to have a new address in 2013

Two years from now, the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) of the Delhi University will have a new address: The South Campus. The institute, which is credited with granting one of the cheapest MBA degrees in the world (Rs. 10,480 a year for the two-year programme), and the best return on investment, too, observes that the new campus, closer to Gurgaon and the industrial area, will increase its exposure to the corporate sector.

“We have been thinking of shifting to the South Campus for the past three years. It took time for approvals to come. The decision to shift to the South Campus was taken mainly due to space constraints at the North Campus. The new campus will allow the institute to efficiently manage and utilise its intellectual and physical infrastructure, which was getting affected primarily because of the distance between the two campuses and the separated administration,” said FMS Dean Prof. Raj S. Dhankar.

The institute plans to build the new structure on the lines of the best B-schools in the US, with state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries and computer labs, keeping in mind the requirements for the next 20 years. “FMS, which has grown four-fold since 1990 with barely any additional infrastructure, will have a completely residential building to accommodate 1,200 students across its five MBA programmes, in FMS’ own campus separate from DU,” adds Dhankar.

FMS also plans to let the students have hands-on experience with industry experts to make them feel completely confident when they enter these industries. “We’ll have finance labs, marketing labs, etc. Once these happen, FMS will be able to compete in a better manner with Indian institutions as well as foreign universities entering India,” says Dhankar, has also served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, besides his 34 years of teaching experience.

FMS, one of the oldest proponents of management education, started its MBA programme (in 1954) even before the Indian Institutes of Management. The institute, which ranks among the top-10 B-schools in the country, has also offered courses like Public System Management, Health Care Management, etc. The institute recently combined its two full-time courses — North Campus’ full time MBA and South Campus’ MBA (Management of Services) — into one flagship programme, while retaining the earlier batch strength of 226.

Source: Business Standard, July 7, 2011

The yawning skill gap: Majority enter labour force without vocational training

The deplorable state of skills in the Indian labour force is well known. The National Sample Survey Office’s latest estimates for 2009-10 are awaited, but according to its 2004-05 estimates, a mere two per cent of Indians in the age group of 15-29 years have received formal vocational training and around eight per cent report having received non-formal vocational training.

A majority of Indian youth enter the labour force without any formal vocational training. These estimates contrast sharply with countries like Korea where as much as 96 per cent of the workforce is skilled. The labour ministry’s annual report for 2010-11 notes that around 50 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) were set up under the Directorate General of Employment and Training in 1950 to meet the demand for skilled workers from the manufacturing sector.

There was a spurt in the number of ITIs in the 1980s when many private institutes opened up in the southern states, but these institutes ended up catering to the growing demand from Gulf countries. Growth has been high in the last two decades, with ITIs numbering 8,642 in 2010 – more than 60 per cent of which are in the private sector – providing 1,214,000 seats.

As of November 2010, the state with the highest number of ITIs is Karnataka, with 1,318 institutes, of which 88 per cent are private. Uttar Pradesh takes second place with 986 institutes, of which 30 per cent are private. The large gap between the two states is particularly striking because the number of people in the age group of 15-19 years in Uttar Pradesh is four times that of Karnataka, calling for many more vocational institutes in Uttar Pradesh. Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have more than 600 institutes, while Maharashtra stands out as the only state with a predominance of government vocational training institutes.

The states in which private institutes account for more than 90 per cent of all ITIs are Orissa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. At the other end, states where private institutes account for a third or less of all ITIs are Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Goa, Assam, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir. In most north-eastern states and Union Territories, there are no private ITIs, the few that exist are government-run.

Maharashtra is also the state with the most number of seats in ITIs, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. Though smaller states do have less number of institutes, the pressure of population on the number of seats is the highest in Assam and West Bengal, where capacity is significantly lower than the population. North-eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir also have less capacity, as expected, along with Madhya Pradesh among the larger states.

Creating an employable workforce calls for many measures that need to be implemented simultaneously — for example, increasing access and quality at ITIs, education reforms and so on. Given that the disparity in the access to training across different states has social consequences, these issues need to be addressed as a priority by state governments.

Source: Business Standard, July 7, 2011

B-schools may be able to opt for government accreditation

In three months, management schools in India may be able to opt for government accreditation in line with international norms, which will enhance their credibility and make them eligible for funding from more local and foreign sources. Higher standards for faculty, infrastructure, admission process and student placement, among other parameters, have been suggested in a report on the proposed accreditation process. A meeting chaired by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal discussed the report on Wednesday.

There is no formal accreditation process for management schools in India currently, although they have to meet minimum benchmarks and get the approval of the regulator, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), to operate. “We have tried to set benchmarks in line with leading global accrediting agencies in management education, such as Association of MBAs, UK, and Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business,” said Vinayshil Gautam, Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) and a member of the committee which authored the report.

The committee, which included B.S. Sahay, Director of Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Raipur, and Rekha Sethi, Director General of All Indian Management Association, was appointed by the Union government’s National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

“As India’s education system grows, we need a quality assurance,” said B.C. Majumdar, Chairman of NBA. “Those who will get this tag will be eligible to get funding benefit from bodies like Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology or external agencies like the World Bank.” Majumdar said the accreditation process will be in place by September, and will initially be voluntary.

But the Union government eventually wants to make accreditation mandatory for all technical education institutes, including management schools. It has already introduced a Bill in Parliament in this regard. “India still suffers from a problem of accessibility of quality education, especially in the underdeveloped parts of the country,” Sibal said at the meeting. “Enhancing the mobility of students and providing satisfactory infrastructural framework are keys to upgrade the education setup and meet the global standards.”

India has at least 3,850 management schools, which admit nearly 400,000 students every year. But industry executives say that in the absence of quality benchmarks, most schools do not churn out well-qualified graduates. “In terms of new recruitment, we find quality only in pockets. Beyond a few institutes like IIMs, you find the new breed is lagging behind,” said Rajiv Sahdev, Vice President of Human Resources at Moser Baer India Ltd. “An accreditation that ensures quality management education will benefit the industry for sure,” said D. Shivakumar, Vice President and Managing Director (Markets) at Nokia India Pvt. Ltd.

IIT-Delhi’s Gautam said students who pass out from accredited institutes will have an edge in getting jobs too. “Those who will come out for accreditation know that all their credentials will be open to public. This adds to credibility.” IIM-Raipur’s Sahay agreed. “To keep the process transparent, the panel has suggested that the quality assessor and mentor of the institutes be different individuals,” he said.

Sibal said the process should be such that “we must eliminate all forms of discretion. What happens now is that you evaluate on the basis of perception of the individual whom you sent there (to institutes) to evaluate. What you really have to do is to set up standards so that the element of discretion is absent.” Dinesh Kumar Paliwal, Member-Secretary of NBA, said the body does not want to accredit IIMs and management courses run by IITs as they have already reached a level of excellence.

Source: Mint, July 7, 2011

With 3 new varsities, Bangalore to turn innovative education hub

Three trendsetting universities in-the-making in Bangalore, with connections to its technology industry, are likely to set off a makeover of India’s stodgy education system. The Azim Premji University, on 100 acres in east Bangalore, will confer development and teacher education degrees. The Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), in 55 acres in Bangalore’s south, has urban transformation at its nucleus. And the Manipal International University, Bangalore, on 100 acres in the northern part of the city, is envisaged as a high-quality international learning centre.

While their cores may vary, all three universities will share a vision of becoming fully inter-disciplinary, highly innovative learning centres. The development is extraordinary for two reasons, said Anurag Behar, Vice-Chancellor of Azim Premji University and the CEO of the foundation funding it. “These are particularly hard to pull off because there is no government funding involved, and yet they are non-commercial and self-sustaining,” he said.

The first batch of 150 students at the Azim Premji University, enrolled for master’s degrees in education, teachers’ education and development, will start classes on July 25. Wipro founder and major stakeholder Azim Premji became the country’s biggest philanthropist when he transferred $ 2 billion worth of his company shares to the Premji Foundation which will administer the university. Its stated mission is to connect education to the bettering of the lives of India’s disadvantaged.

IIHS, which proposes to become India’s first national university for innovation, will start academic sessions next year with a master’s programme in urban practice, its Director Aromar Revi said. The programme, as well as bachelor’s and doctorate degrees that the institute will later offer, will cut across a dozen disciplines including technology, design, economics, law, governance and sociology. “Such integration of diverse streams such as law, governance and the social sciences is rare anywhere in the world,” said Revi. The master’s in urban practice, for instance, will offer students courses such as contemporary India and environment management.

The funding for building the institute’s hub and several other campuses will come from high net worth individuals and corporations. Nandan Nilekani, the head of the unique ID project, and his wife Rohini have gifted Rs. 500 million to the project. Industrialists from the Mahindra and Godrej groups, as well as top-rung corporate leaders, are involved.

To help set up its five campuses, Manipal International University has roped in T V Mohandas Pai, who recently quit Infosys after many years as its CFO and HR head. The five universities will attempt to free young Indians from bizarre marks cut-offs for college admissions, Manipal Education and Medical Group CEO Ranjan Pai said.

The five social sector universities will make education more accessible through scholarships and reduced fees. “They will be path-breaking in that humanities will be integrated as optional subjects with engineering and medical courses,” Ranjan Pai said. “Within the rigid Indian regulatory system, we will strive for a balanced approach where a medical student can do a management course alongside, or a dental student can take engineering as an elective,” he said. “The focus will be on less theory and more on practical work in the form of real-world training.”

All three institutions will have multi-campus components, and have major plans to scale up. Manipal University, for instance, has planned five such campuses — in Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, and two other cities in central and western India.

Source: The Indian Express, July 7, 2011