The Hindu Business Line : Great Lakes to set up own campus

The Great Lakes Institute of Management is investing about Rs 30 crore to set up its own campus at Manamai, about 55 km from Chennai. Most of the project cost would be funded through donations from India and abroad, said Mr S. Sriram, Executive Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management. At present, the institute operates out of a 15,000-sq-ft leased premises in the city.

The new Wi-Fi-enabled residential campus would come up on 14 acres of land in two phases. In the first phase, to be completed by December 2007, about 1 lakh sq ft would be built to accommodate classrooms, hostels and libraries. In the second phase, to be completed by early 2009, about 80,000 sq ft would be added to accommodate amphitheatres and an auditorium.

The institute also plans to add another 1.5 lakh sq ft at the campus over the next three to five years, said Mr Sriram. This would support the institute's proposed PhD programme and a research centre in partnership with Yale University.

Tuition fees

The new campus can house 300 students and from academic year 2008, the institute will increase its intake to 250 students from the present 160. Except for additional hostel fees, there would be no significant hike in tuition fees. "We will continue to offer the cheapest one-year MBA programme in the country," said Mr Sriram. The institute charges Rs 4.9 lakh (inclusive of all fees) for its programme, while others such as IIM-Ahmedabad and Indian School of Business charge Rs 11 lakh and Rs 13 lakh respectively, he said.

The institute is also positioning itself as a specialised marketing institute. Citing examples of how every B-School had a core competency, Mr Sriram said Great Lakes would leverage its marketing research related work.

The institute will establish `chair professorships' to aid research in all management streams. After setting up chairs on marketing and family businesses, the institute is in talks with a nationalised bank and a corporate hospital to set up chairs on financial services and hospital management respectively. A chair on supply chain management and manufacturing is also in the pipeline, said Mr Sriram.

Under these chairs, students and professors can carry out industry-related research that would be published in a research journal that Great Lakes plans to bring out bi-annually.

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