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Cabinet okays IIM bill, students will now get degrees instead of diplomas

Until now, the 20 premier institutes had been granting diplomas instead of degrees to their management graduates

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IIM Ahmedabad
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In a pathbreaking move, the 20 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) were on Tuesday granted complete autonomy, which will enable them to grant degrees instead of diplomas, besides having a greater say in their functioning.

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved the IIM Bill, 2017, under which IIMs will be declared institutions of national importance and will be able to grant degrees.

Until now, the 20 premier institutes had been granting diplomas instead of degrees to their management graduates.

As per the bill, the management of the IIMs will be driven by the Board of Directors , which will also select the chairperson and director of each institute. According to sources in the Human Resources and Development Ministry, the Board will also have the power to initiate a inquiry against a Director if s/he is not working in accordance with the rules.

The bill also calls for greater participation of experts and alumni in the Board.

The involvement of the Board was one of the demands from the IIMs, arguing that this would bring more transparency to the appointment of Directors, and would prevent them from being politically-motivated.

The proposal to give complete autonomy to IIMs has been revised a number of times, primarily shuttling between the HRD Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office. The latest draft of the bill, which has been agreed to by the Cabinet, agrees to most of the suggestions by the PMO, which includes not having President as the Visitor of the institutions, ministry sources said.

The Bill also provides for periodic review of the performance of the institutes by independent agencies, and placing those results in the public domain. The annual reports will be placed in the Parliament, and will be subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General's office.

All IIMs are separate autonomous bodies registered under the Societies Act. Being societies, IIMs were not authorised to award degrees and, hence, had been awarding only Post Graduate Diploma and a Fellow programme in Management. While these were generally treated as equivalent to MBAs and Ph.Ds, respectively, the equivalence is not universally acceptable, particularly for the Fellow Programme.

The Bill will now allow them to offer degrees at par with international management institutes.

What the bill means for IIMs:

  1. IIMs will be able to award degrees instead to diplomas to its students.
     
  2. Management of IIMs will be driven by a Board largely comprising experts and alumni. Provision for inclusion of women and members SC/ST.
     
  3. Performance will be reviewed periodically by independent agencies, results in public domain.
     
  4. Provision of Coordination Forum of IIMs as an advisory body.
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