Autonomous B Schools, or University Departments?

 Which is better?

In India, it appears, the autonomous B school outshines the department of management in a university. Especially if it is fully residential. This is unlike the US, where autonomy is inbuilt into university departments. The large bureaucracy in an Indian university nullifies some advantages that it may have in terms of scale and diversity.

Another unique thing is that the top Indian B schools are run by the central government. Unlike the Harvards of the U.S. This could be because the first independent Indian government identified Higher Education as a strategic growth lever, and went into action mode. Set up IIMs and IITs. The focus on one discipline helped them carve out a niche, unlike state universities, which also had fund constraints-still do. Industry participation initially was insignificant, and the government fully subsidised these institutions. My fees at IIM Bangalore for the PGDM in 1982-84 were around 3-4000 rupees per annum.  Seems to have paid off for the government.

Less bureaucracy, strict faculty selection and student selection and swiftly changing curriculum and pedagogy with freedom and incentives to faculty have made IIMs a force to reckon with- I worked at 3 of them, I should know.

The Indian School of Business

Visiting ISB for some work, I could not help but wonder at what Indian universities can be, and what they are. Promises of greatness belied. If you are at a typical state university campus, what you see is lack of professionalism everywhere, and a lack of maintenance even in the basic painting of walls, fixing of broken chairs and so on. Not to mention the broken intellectual infrastructure.

When will this change to something we badly need? My theory is that one of two things has to happen. Foreign universities must descend in large numbers and provide a kick in the backside to shape up these slumbering giants. Or, every university must be made autonomous, and every college must be asked to market their own programs, with few exceptions. Might just shake up the lethargy prevailing all around.

The ISB is a reminder that it can be done.

IIT Di

Inspired to title it this way by the numerous di's and da's all around us who are becoming more important by the day. And also a general kolaveri of the original kolaveri di fame- those who haven't heard of this, please excuse-and update thyself.

What I meant to say is that I went to IIT Dilli for a conference whose theme is Excellence in Higher Education. And got a chance to interact with a few interesting returned NRIs among other beings. They are heading some new institutions-universities mostly, and in the private sector. So the boom may have begun, both for NRIs and univs. Hopefully it will attract good students and build a virtuous cycle.

A mass of macro level data was also presented and discussed, which generally makes little sense to me as I am a micro-brained person- I refer to its size, not pre-occupations.

Anyway, it was a nice experience and an ego-boost, because I met some readers of my text book, and they said they liked the book. So, I should attend more such conferences, is my major takeaway. Hopefully someone will host a few!