Work experience must for IIM-B?

From 2012, Panel Suggests B-School Put Less Weightage On CAT Score

Mathang Seshagiri TNN

Bangalore: An internal committee of the IIM-Bangalore has proposed some radical changes to revamp the flagship two-year postgraduate programme.

The panel, headed by Prof C Manohar Reddy, wants the B-school to put less weightage on CAT score, make a 22-month work experience compulsory, summer placements optional and stress on leadership potential and ethical and social sensitivity. The recommendations, which will be finalized after receiving inputs from the faculty, may be rolled out from the 2012 session. At present, the classes of 2011 and 2012 have 23% and 28% of students, respectively, without work experience.

The committee also wants to increase diversity and has pushed for at least 10% of the batch to comprise international students within the next decade.

Its recommendation of making summer internships optional could face some opposition from the students. “Stop the practice of preplacement talks and interviews for the summer internship; instead, the selection of summer internship should be done on the basis of resumes, as was the case several years ago,” the report exclusively accessed by TOI states. The panel feels that placements should be taken away from the student committee and handled by the career development office.

Outlining the curriculum philosophy, the panel says the focus should not just be on “knowing”, but also on “being” and “doing”. It has mooted seven new modules/ courses, including a twoweek compulsory group social project, for induction into the programme. The future managers could be taught some new courses on responsible leadership, entrepreneurial thinking, integration, interpersonal skills and leadership. The panel also wants to do away with the norms of 75% compulsory attendance and online mechanism for course and faculty feedback.

New IITs hit by poor infra, says Sibal
Hyderabad: The eight new IITs that were permitted to set up in 2008 do not have the necessary infrastructure and are not up to the mark making it difficult for the country’s prestigious institutions to retain faculty, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said here on Tuesday. Sibal blamed the state governments for not allotting the required land for setting up permanent campuses for these institutions. “These new IITs are functioning in temporary campuses and unable to attract new faculties. Due to the same reason we are finding it difficult to retain faculties. We need commitment from state governments for at least 500 acres of land without any liabilities attached to it,” Sibal said. The ministry started these new IITs three years ago. Each institution should have at least 90 teachers from all disciplines. According to reports most of the institutions do not have the required number of teaching staff. These new IITs are yet to get permanent campuses and in some states like Andhra Pradesh, where land has been allotted, building and other infrastructure is not in place yet, the minister said. AGENCIES

MANAGING ENTRY

Recommendations of the IIM-B internal committee
Less Weightage On CAT score 22-month work experience Optional summer placements 10% international students within next decade Seven new courses with emphasis on leadership, social sensitivity Career development office to handle placements Doing away with 75% compulsory attendance Online mechanism for course and faculty feedback Innovation week for intensive course, special workshops & projects

Applying for CAT isn’t a cakewalk

On Day 1, IIM Aspirants Face Technical Problems While Filling Up Online Applications

Hemali Chhapia | TNN

Mumbai: The application process for signing up to take the Common Admission Test of the Indian Institutes of Management may have gone online, but little has changed for aspirants. Agitated students said that they could not call back the form if a mistake crept in, they were asked to buy another form by shelling out Rs 1,400.

Students had to buy vouchers before they could log in and register themselves online. Despite the fact that registration opened on Wednesday and would go on till October 1, sources said that thousands of aspirants submitted their applications as they wanted to book a seat for the last slot — 3.30 pm on December 7. In fact, the prime slot is no longer available to aspirants wanting to write the test from Delhi, where there are close to 14,000 seats available per slot across computer testing centres. This year, the IIMs will conduct the CAT online for ten days from November 28; there are two slots available per day, but each student can take the exam only once.

“Students had a lot of complaints regarding the registration process. It was not user-friendly. After details were punched in by students, there was no validation on whether the information given was enough or wrong,’’ said Arks Srinivas, director TIME, a coaching class. What got the goat of most management aspirants was that not enough testing centres had been listed in some big cities; Mumbai has only five centres.

Srinivas added that the form also notes that students have to fill in their names as they appear on their SSC (class X) certificate. However, the site does not accept a form if the box for surname is left blank (several south Indians do not have a second name), leaving students like Vanita from Bangalore in a quandary.

“My SSC marksheet only has my first name. But the CAT online form insists on a surname and also states that my details must match with what has appeared on my SSC marksheet. My form was not accepted without the second name,’’ said a hassled Vanita from Bangalore, who works for an IT firm.

Task force to unite all edu regulators set up
New Delhi: The process for replacing UGC, AICTE and National Council for Teacher Education by the proposed National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) and a national testing scheme on the lines of GRE for university admission has begun. A task force, set up by the HRD ministry for the purpose, will also advise the government on the creation of 14 world class innovation universities. The task force will oversee how the transition to the new regulatory body will take place.

Central school fees up

New Delhi: Studying in Central Schools will now be costlier as the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghthan has hiked the fees by three times from October. Kapil Sibal defended the new fee regime on the grounds of the monthly allowance of Rs 1,000 per child being given to the central staff. AGENCIES CAUGHT IN THE NET

IIM aspirants say they could not call back the online form once a mistake crept in the CAT application. They were asked to buy another form by shelling out Rs 1,400

Students said after details were punched in, there was no validation on whether the information given was enough or wrong

They complain that not enough testing centres have been listed in big cities like Mumbai
Applications are not accepted online if the box for surname is not filled. Several south Indian students who don’t have a second name are in a quandary

Tough to bell online CAT?

Shift From Paper To Online Test Will Need Adjustment, Say Trainers

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Cracking one of the toughest entrance tests — the Common Admission Test (CAT) — for entry to seven Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) was never easy.

For the first time, CAT will go online and with a little over two months left for CAT 2009, aspirants are preparing hard at coaching centres, trying out various types of question paper patterns.But how are students preparing to face CAT? What are the difficulties they are encountering?

According to coaching centres that TOI spoke to, students are finding it a tad tough with the online version, as opposed to the paper-based one.

“Many candidates told us that they were finding it difficult to stare continuously at the monitor for over two hours,” pointed out Arindam Lahiri, director (academics) with Career Launcher. TIME regional director Ajay Arora revealed that candidates could face ‘computer fatigue’. “According to IIMs, the online test will be user-friendly and the pattern will remain the same, which will be advantageous for students,” Arora said.

Some hiccups?
With paper-based test, candidates could give the paper a once-over and then decide which section to tackle first. But a preliminary scan of the paper before solving it may be difficult with the online version, at least during the mock tests.

But Anchana C, a working person, said she has no problems making the transition from paper to computer. “During mock tests, we were given models — one section after the other and tabbed, where all sections are presented on different windows. You can alternate from one window to the next. Questions are hyperlinked, so you can go directly to the question you want to attempt,” she explained.

In the coaching centres
Coaching centres are providing question papers with different patterns. “We are giving papers with all types of patterns so that whatever pattern appears, students are ready,” said Ajay of TIME.

Another observation the trainers made is that reading graphs and passages in the Reading Comprehension (RC) section is difficult in the online mode. Unlike with paper, candidates can’t put any marking on the graph. Earlier, students could also mark difficult sentences in RC, which is now not possible to do. “The RC section may pose a problem. Grasping power is higher on paper and reading long passages online will be tough. Plus, in DI and Quant and geometry sections, transferring calculations to drawings will be an issue,” said Anchana.

Details on website soon
An IIM-B official said details of the exam pattern will be posted on the website in September.

Online Mode
With paper-based test, candidates give the entire paper a once-over and then decide which section to tackle first

Preliminary scan of the paper before solving it may be difficult with the online version
In online Reading Comprehension section, unlike with paper, candidates can’t put any marking on the graph

IIM-A profs want pay on a par with Harvard dons

Vasundhara Vyas Mehta | TNN

Ahmedabad: Quality comes at a cost and the IIM-A faculty members have made it very clear in a memorandum to the HRD ministry on Friday.

The missive comes in response to a notification sent by the ministry on August 20, detailing their salary structure according to the Sixth Pay Commission, which took the wind out of their sails.

The four-member committee that framed the memorandum have quoted Harvard salaries to justify their demand. Designed on the lines of the Harvard Business School, IIM-A is upset that the Sixth Pay Commission has wrested this ‘special status’ from it, so they are demanding bigger pay packets.

The memorandum says that an assistant professor at Harvard gets $140,000 as annual starting pay, equivalent to Rs 23 lakh, and Indian School of Business (ISB) pays over Rs 20 lakh to its APs. Against this, an IIM-A AP gets only Rs 5.5 lakh as starting pay annually.

A major concern of the the IIM-A faculty council is that if institutes of excellence are not given special status, the faculty-student ratio in these institutes could suffer. To retain the ‘top notch’ faculty in the institute they have to be given enough reason to stay. “Till the sixth pay commission, we were given the status of being premier, even though we did not have salaries. But now there is neither,” said a faculty member. One of the recommendations is that the faculties should also get a scholastic pay of Rs 15,000 per month over and above their pay band and grade pay.

The memorandum urges that the pay divide be addressed if these premier institutions are expected to continue to have services of top notch faculty and avert brain drain. “The present notification will worsen the already existing crisis at the entry level AP (assistant professor) position and will cause additional problems at all faculty levels in the IIMs. The following analysis assumes that the HRD ministry would want the IIMs to attract and retain world class academic talent in these premier institutions and to enable the expansion of the IIMs and that the revised pay scales are intended to be a significant contributor to this purpose, says the memorandum.

PAR-FECT SALARY
A Harvard assistant prof gets $140,000 (Rs 23L) as annual starting pay, but his IIM counterpart gets a meagre Rs 5.5L

The IIM-A faculty members want a scholastic pay of Rs 15K per month besides their pay band and grade pay

IIM-A memorandum to HRD

MIXED BAG FOR THE DIFFERENTLY ABLED

Online CAT a new test for disabled

Shruthi Balakrishna | TNN

Bangalore: Anup (name changed) is affected by cerebral palsy but he never found it challenging to prepare for the Common Admission Test (CAT) for the IIMs.

But he’s apprehensive this time as there’s no mention of the authorities providing a scribe/reader to examinees like him — only visually impaired students are entitled to one. Anup’s fear has been compounded by the fact that CAT 2009 will be a computer-based test.

According to CAT FAQs 2009, visually impaired students appearing for CAT will have a scribe/reader. “There is no mention of how students with cerebral palsy will write the tests this year because the paper-pencil format has been done away with and the FAQs have left out if we will have a scribe at all,’’ says another student.

The IIMs will conduct the test for 10 days, from November 28 to December 7. Anup is sitting for the CAT a third time. “When I wrote CAT in 2005 and 2008, a scribe read the questions and marked the answers. In all my exams from Class 7 to degree, a scribe was provided. I fail to understand how IIMs left out cerebral palsy candidates this year,” said the BCom graduate, who works as an analyst in a reputed firm. Students with disabilities like Anup are now planning to approach the CAT committee for help.

Audio software could help, too
Vaishnavi Kasturi, who is visually impaired and appeared for CAT 2006, told TOI the exam was disabled-friendly. “We’re allowed to take a scribe. In fact, the process of approving the scribe was also fast. It would be good if IIMs installed a software for visually impaired candidates so they can hear the text,” said this business analyst.

New website policy to let them talk to you
Bangalore: The next time you log on to the Indian Railways website to book an e-ticket, don’t be surprised if it starts talking to you. Many others will get chatty too — as you file your I-T return or check out movies for the week — to help the disabled, especially the visually challenged.

All websites in the country, including the 5,000 government sites, will turn audible when the Union information-technology department brings in a policy to make websites accessible to all. For this, a website needs to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a standard followed in the US and the UK. The new standard, along with a screen reader, will make the content audible for the user through a headphone or a speaker. A blind person can use tab keys to respond — they will take him/her through the different links.

While the old websites will be renewed, the standards are mandatory for the new ones. The project has been given to BarrierBreak Technologies and will take 10%-15% of the ordinary project cost. “It will not only help blind people, but also aged and illiterate people,’’ said Javed Abidi of National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People.

The idea was mooted last year on December 3, the day for the disabled, in Delhi. “The IT ministry was very proactive about the programme. The draft, approved by the ministry, will be released soon,’’ he said. The policy would be extended to other hardware items as well — like ATMs, TVs, washing machines and microwaves. This will be the second phase of the project. Sruthy Susan Ullas

Seven new IIM's approved by cabinet...

The country will soon have seven new IIMs, of which four will start functioning from next year with the Union Cabinet on Thursday approving a HRD ministry proposal to set up these management institutes.

The new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will be set up in Tami Nadu, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.

Aimed at generating a highly competent and trained manpower, the institutes are also expected to act as a major catalyst for developing a knowledge society that would inevitably impact on the economic growth of the country.

In the first phase, four IIMs at Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Rohtak (Haryana) will be set up in 2009-10, which would become functional from academic session 2010-11.

The IIMs in Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan will be set up in 2010-11.

In phase-I there would be an intake of 140 students in the PG course and by the end of phase-II, it would reach 560 students per year.

The 11th Five Year Plan endorsed by the National Development Council (NDC) in December 2007, envisaged establishment of seven new IIMs in the country.

With these new IIMs, the country will have 13 B-schools. The Centre has also established one IIM -- Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management (RGIIM) in Shillong -- which has commenced its first academic session from 2008-2009.

This is exactly why I won't study at IIMs

Education looses its purpose when it get treated like a business. Why can't the so called best institutes provide quality education at nominal fees. Why should the best be offered on Financial Merit!

This is getting low, dirty and disgusting!

The Economic Times article - 29/12/2007

COSTLY LESSONS

IIMs to hike fees by up to 50% from next year

STEEPEST HIKE FROM IIM-A

Mansi Bhatt AHMEDABAD

GET READY to pay a huge premium to study at the country’s premier management institutes. Despite strong opposition from the human resource development ministry, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are set for a huge fee hike from the next academic session.

The proposed fee structure will see IIMAhmedabad effecting one of the steepest hikes in the history of management education in India. The IIM-A intends to hike its fees to whopping Rs 3 lakh for the 2008-2010 batch from the current Rs 2 lakh. This 50% increase will be the steepest fee hike by any IIM. Last year, IIM-Bangalore increased annual fee by Rs 75,000, from Rs 1.75 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh. IIM-B plans to further increase it to Rs 2.75 lakh for the next academic session.

The board of governors of IIM-A has approved the steep hike despite strong reservations from the HRD ministry. According to sources, at a recent board meeting of IIMs, the members approved fee hike for the flagship PG programme for the next academic session. The ministry officials do not seem to be happy with the decision and are expected to ask for less stiff hike. IIM-A last increased its fees in March 2007, from Rs 1.77 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.

The institutes are increasing fees to offset the rising expenditure per student. “Majority of the board members accepted the proposal despite opposition from the members from state and central governments who thought the hike was too steep,” said a member who attended the meeting. While the HRD ministry representatives and the state government officials opposed the hike, the other members argued that hike was imperative considering the Pay Commission recommendations.

I I M - A

To hike fees for 2008-2010 batch from Rs 2 lakh/year to Rs 3 lakh/year It had increased its fees from Rs 1.77 lakh to Rs 2 lakh in March 2007

I I M - B

To increase fees to Rs 2.75 lakh for the next academic session In March this year, it had hiked fees from Rs 1.75 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh

I I M - C & I I M - L
Raised fees to around Rs 2 lakh in the past one-and-a-half years