IIMK Begins its New Batch with Record Strength and Balanced Score Cards

KOZHIKODE:
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode today inaugurated the 23rd batch of Post Graduate Program (PGP) and 13th batch of Fellow Programme in Management (FPM).

The event was conducted successfully in the presence of Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command as the Chief Guest, academia and the students of IIMK. Vice Admiral AK Chawla has a flourishing career of over 28 years in the Indian Navy, and has the distinction of being awarded the Nausena Medal, the Vishisht Seva Medal, and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal.

The ceremony began with an invocation and traditional lamp lighting ceremony by Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, Director at IIMK and the Chief Guest, Vice Admiral AK Chawla, Programme Chairs and Student followed by addresses by the chairpersons of Admissions, PGP and FPM, the Dean- Administration & Development and the Director.

The Chief Guest, Vice Admiral AK Chawla, delivered the inaugural address to the students and the faculty of IIMK. He Congratulated each student for securing admission to the very prestigious programme at IIMK. He underscored the importance of brilliant leadership skills and qualities to be emulated by the young generation of managers in the country as its future is in their hands. Citing the life examples of a number of successful leaders, he highlighted that outstanding leadership always has unique qualities such as larger vision, communication skills, innovation and risk taking ability. He also spoke about dire need for work-life balancing, in the ever growing world of competition and machine enabled intelligence.

The session was concluded by a vote of thanks by the member of the students’ council and the National Anthem. Number of Students for PGP and FPM: IIM Kozhikode currently has 76 full time faculty members and the new batch includes 16 students for the FPM (Ph.D.) programme and 485 students for the PGP (MBA) programme.

Academic Profile and Gender Diversity: IIMK is a pioneer in gender and academic diversity among IIMs. The new batch has 145 female PGP students constituting 30%, and 8 female FPM students making 50%. Supernumerary addition of 60 female candidates have also contributed positively to the increase in gender diversity at IIMK, much higher than the national average. There are 28% non-engineers in the batch, the highest ever in PGP admissions. More over this year, the Institute is admitting a modest number of EWS (Economically Weaker Section) candidates, in convergence with the national policy.

Strategy in Teaching & Learning: The Institute is planning a great deal of pedagogical changes that will empower the students to meet the future challenges. There will be greater internationalization and immersive learning opportunities for the students. In the first year, students are expected to be exposed to many pedagogical innovations and new courses such as Design Thinking, Leadership 4.0, Digital Economy, Immersive Learning etc. in order to solve India’s most critical problems.

Commenting on the dire need for diversity in classroom, Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, Director of IIMK said “In a meritocracy, talent is dispersed in multiple demographic and socio-economic spaces. IIMK bets on enhancing the quality of teaching and learning by making its classrooms more diverse and inclusive”.