IIMB, Bangalore

  

Another great day in India for us all.  We had an unexpected early delay which meant the morning was a bit less rushed than it might have been which is always welcome.  We then headed off in the coach to the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore (IIMB).  Another joy, it was only about half an hour away front he hotel  which in Indian city traffic is also a joy!




 


Our first duty was to enjoy a tour around the magnificent campus.  The grounds are very beautiful, with many flowers and trees and a host of dragonflies and even termite mounds.  The buildings are built of concrete and local granite blocks which is architecturally very interesting too.

We spent the rest of the morning with the Chief Administrative officer Mr CV Indu Shekhar Vasisst, who helped us get to grips with the organisational structure of the Institute.  The Institute is an elite organisation and one of only seven in India.  There are only 400 or so students, who are selected from over 300,000 applicants. Competition for places is therefore huge and applicants have to sit the IIM Common Admissions Test and are also judged on their performance at 10th and 12th grade, their first degree and any additional experience they may have. Then the best 1500 get an interview and these take place at centres all over India.

After yet another lovely lunch we met with the Director Prof. Pankaj Chandra and a range of senior colleagues to talk about the work and structure of the Institute.  Of all the institutions we have visited, IIMB have shown the most interest in the development of their own administrative staff that we have seen.  They are especially interested in the administration of UK HE and were asking us what short courses might be available in the UK for their staff.  They also showed a good deal of interest in academic staff exchanges, perhaps for one or two weeks.  There is something we could learn about handling a selection process where the applications run into the hundreds of thousands!  These are things we will be taking back to the AUA on our return.

 

The Institute is almost completely autonomous.  It receives no funding from the government and has few restrictions placed on it by regulation.  Unfortunately they are still bound by the nationally imposed wage structure, which is not helpful in terms of recruitment of academic staff.  They are, however very attuned to the needs of industry, there are senior figures from the State (Karnataka) and major industrial companies (including Infosys, Reliance Industries, ITC, Castrol  India etc.) on their Board of Governors, which acts rather like our Councils do.

After our usual photo call (this feels like a two-week wedding!) we made it back to the hotel for a team meeting where we sorted out the details of our next trip, to Coimbatore tomorrow and into another State, Tamil Nadu!