ISB brings in AI, increases flexibility of curriculum to tackle the changing business environment

In a major initiative, the Indian School of Business (ISB) is now getting future-ready with significant changes in its curriculum in the backdrop of technological advancements like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the changing business environment.

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“While our curriculum remained dynamic for the last decades, what we are bringing in now from the post-graduate Programme is the first major paradigm shift for ISB,’‘ Madan M Pillutla, Dean, ISB told businessline. 

ISB is bringing in some structural changes based on an extensive exercise including feedback from the students, alumni and recruiters. 

One of the three major objectives of the change is to have more flexibility in programmes to suit the vast diversity of the students. 

“We are one of the rare schools where we have a diverse pool of students. For example, in this new incoming batch this year, we have a national badminton champion, defence personnel, IAS officers, and young scientist as well corporate honchos. They will curate their own experiences at ISB and graduate at the end with different takeaways to cater to their diverse needs,” the Dean said. 

To suit diverse business requirements, ISB has brought in more flexibility in programmes. Till now nearly 50 per cent of the course has a fixed component while the rest is electives. Now the fixed core Programme portion has been reduced to increase flexibility.

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As of date, 819 students have registered for the PGP Class of 2025 at ISB. Out of these, the number of women students account for 47 per cent (up from 40 per cent last year. While 53 per cent are engineers and 47 per cent are from non-engineering backgrounds. 

According to Pillutla, the dynamics of learning have been changing. Unlike earlier, learning now is a constant process. “The second aspect of curriculum change is fostering learnability as per market needs. Thirdly, we want to build renewability. We are retiring the old electives and bringing in new ones,’’ he said.

Based on research, ISB is now driving experiential learning. “Instead of purely lecture-based courses, if students are experiencing something in the class, learning will be more immersive.

ISB has also directed its faculty to make the courses experiential learning-based on a host of activities such as projects.

Why change now?

One of the biggest triggers for curriculum change at ISB are technological shifts and the changes in business practices, the Dean said, “These are the impetus that made us ponder over the changes for almost a year. We have now entered a period of uncertainty. When we can’t predict the shape of the landscape, variety in learning makes our students job-ready,.’‘

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