The Hindu Business Line : `Faculty quality, not fees, is the issue'

Mr R. Ramaraj, Managing Director, Sify Ltd, Mr Arun Jain, CMD, Polaris, Dr U.R. Rao, former Chairman of ISRO, Mr Govindaraj Ethiraj, CNBC moderator, and Maj Gen D.N. Khurana, Director-General, All-India Management Association, at a meet in Chennai. — Bijoy Ghosh

Chennai , March 4

THE quality of faculty at Indian management institutions, and not the education's affordability, emerged as the most bothersome issue for a cross-section of academics and managers at a brainstorming session on management education's challenges, in Chennai on Wednesday.

Industry hands like Mr R. Ramaraj, Managing Director, Sify, and Mr Arun Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, Polaris Software, felt that management faculty members needed more exposure to industry and international trends. Mr Ramaraj said that a key issue facing management education today was inadequate accountability imposed on the faculty.

Mr K.S. Ramesh, Executive Director, CavinKare, said current rules that impose a minimum qualification level on faculty members stopped experienced industry hands teaching in management institutions. He felt industry veterans could contribute to management education.

While most participants at the brainstorming session, organised by CNBC TV18, were against the Union Government interfering in the fee structure, some felt it could play a role in improving the quality of faculty.

Major General D.N. Khurana, Director-General of All India Management Association, for one felt that Government help was needed to improve the quality of faculty at management institutions.

Another issue that bothered participants was the gap between the top tier of business schools led by the IIMs, and the rest. Dr U.R. Rao, former ISRO Chairman, said India had 930 business schools about a year ago, while Mr Pratik Kumar, Vice-President of Human Resources at Wipro, felt there is a significant divide between the top 45 schools and the rest.

Father N. Casimirraj, Director, Loyola Institute of Business Administration, said market forces would decide on the quality of business schools, and some would eventually close down. Though the right of the Government to fix fees at IIMs was the backdrop to the brainstorming session, participants felt affordability of education was not a problem.

Prof. Prakash Apte, Director of IIM Bangalore, said the fees at IIM were not keeping "poor students" away. He felt they were negatively affected by the poor quality of early education that made it difficult for them to compete later. He added that IIM Bangalore was willing to give scholarships to poor students who got in.

Dr Rao, who had chaired a committee that reviewed the country's technical education system, said the committee's report suggested fees be linked to the country's per capita income.