IIM Kozhikode Welcomes Passing of IIM Bill

KOZHIKODE:
One of the premium management institutes in India, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) welcomes the passing of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bill by Rajya Sabha. The IIM Bill was passed on December 19, 2017.
The IIM Bill grants functioning autonomy and restricts the role of Government in appointing directors and faculty members. The Bill will become an Act once the President signs it, making 20 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) as Institutes of National Importance with power to grant degrees to their students.
The Boards of the Institutes are proposed to be vested with full sovereignty including the power to appoint the Chairperson as well as the Director which earlier used to happen via the appointments committee of the cabinet, chaired by the prime minister. The authority to review the performance of the Institutes, including its faculty, on the parameters of long term strategy and rolling plans of the Institutes through an independent agency or group of experts also vests with the Board.
The Board will be the principal executive body of each institute responsible for the affairs of the Institute to act as per the regulations framed by it and will not need any Government approval.
The Board will constitute of: Chairperson of the Board to be appointed by the Board (for 4 years)
Board appointees: 4 eminent persons from education, industry, commerce, social service or public administration; 1 SC/ST nominee; 5 Alumni/society representatives; 3 women members, in the absence of three women – 2 faculty representatives by Chairperson as per procedure made by Board, 1 Central Government nominee, 1 state Government nominee, Director ex-officio member.
To ensure uniformity across IIMs, the Bill provides a “Coordination Forum of IIMs” to discuss common issues. This will be an advisory body with limited powers. It will comprise of 33 members and be headed by an “eminent person.”
Prof. Kulbhushan Balooni, Director (In-charge), IIM Kozhikode said, “This is great news for IIM Kozhikode and the Bill moves us to achieve global levels of excellence. The functional autonomy empowers us to expedite and compete with the international institutes. The bill will enable us to provide high quality management education and promote allied areas of knowledge as well as interdisciplinary studies.”
Prof. Debabrata Chatterjee, Dean (Academic) at IIMK said, “We at IIMK welcome the IIM Bill as it has addressed the concerns about preserving IIM autonomy. This is an excellent move which will help IIMs to match up to the practices followed in top global institutes.”
Prof. C. Raju, Dean (Administration & Development) opined that, “IIMs now have to be much more proactive and assume greater responsibilities. Greater autonomy will certainly take IIMs to new heights”.
IIM Bill 2017 grants “complete autonomy to IIMs, combined with adequate accountability“. This means the periodic review of the performance of these institutes by independent agencies is on the anvil, results of which will be put in the public domain. As part of the greater accountability, the annual report of the IIMs will be placed in the Parliament and CAG will audit their accounts.
The move has got go ahead from management and students of the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) as the standardization move will put its students on par with degrees awarded by other reputed global business schools.