IIM expansion would come at a price

MUMBAI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Independence Day announcement that the government would set up seven more IIMs to take the total number to 13 comes at a time when the existing IIMs are struggling to improve the teacher-student ratio to bring it in line with global standards.

It will also be a difficult challenge for the government and the IIMs to cope up with the attrition rate in the faculty. At present, the teacher-student ratio at IIMs is pegged anywhere between 1:3 and 1:9.

The Harvard Business School, the most famous management institution in the world, has two teachers for every student. None of the world’s top 50 business schools has a teacher-student ratio worse than 1:2.

Says IIM-Bangalore director Prakash Apte: “Creating infrastructure is not a big issue, but getting quality faculty is.” Each of the seven proposed IIMs will accept 100-120 students and will need at least 20 full-time faculty members.