IIM-K ties up with Yale for dean-training programme

The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM-K) will soon be signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 10 top Chinese universities, its director, Debashish Chatterjee, said today.

IIM-K had recently signed a tripartite agreement with Yale University of the US.

"We are not only looking at the US, we are also looking at the East," Chatterjee, who recently returned after a four-day visit to China, told reporters here.

The institute at present has collaborations with about 25 foreign universities and this number is likely to go up to 50 in a year.

The tripartite MoU entered into between Yale, IIM-K and IIT-Kanpur will result in the launch of the Yale India Leadership Programme, which will expose university and academia leaders in India at the level of vice-chancellor and dean to the best practices of academic institutional management in the US.

As per the agreement, two centres of excellence in academic leadership (CEEAL) will be set up at the IIM-K campus and IIT Kanpur to start the leadership programme, Chatterjee said.

"While emphasis is given to analytical skills with global perspective and cross-cultural matching of ideologies, business demands make it imperative to grow and foster international corproate leaders," he said.

The five-year collaboration with Yale will permit launching of a series of exchange programmes in academic leadership for faculty development and leadership training between Yale and the CEEALs.

This will aid a leadership programme focussed on vice-chancellors, directors, deans and current to future academic leaders in India.

"Most of those heading academic institutions do not know how to run the administration, though they may be very good in academics. There is need to give them an opportunity to get trained," Chatterjee said, adding that the idea is to have two-week training to start with.

The funding is likely to be received from US President Barack Obama's Obama Knowledge Initiative. This would be finalised during Obama's visit to India next weekend.

As per the agreement, the institute will appoint two members to a joint management committee to supervise the collaborative efforts. The committee will meet when necessary to review the progress of implementation of activities, define new areas and programmes of collaboration, and check up on other aspects of the MoU like funding issues.