IIMs may need a lesson in managing faculty crunch

New Delhi: Indian Institutes of Management are facing a faculty shortage as the nation’s most preferred business schools for students and recruiters are finding it tough to get quality teaching staff to fill vacant and new positions. None of the IIMs meet the prescribed ratio of one full-time faculty for every 10 students.
Experts blame a shrinking pool of talent with young PhDs preferring higher-paying corporate jobs over teaching, attrition among existing members and addition of more seats and classes without inducting enough teachers for the dilution in the faculty-student ratio.


At IIM-Indore, the faculty-student ratio currently is as high as 1:15, while at Lucknow and Kozhikode, it is one for around 12 students. Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Bangalore have maintained the level at between 11and 12 for the past two years. With some of the newer institutes — as many as 10 started operations post-2010 — on an expansion mode, the shortage is likely to worsen, though some IIM officials believe the new IIM Act will help address the problem as it offers greater freedom to B-schools to attract and retain faculty.

“The faculty shortage at IIMs may worsen as their (IIMs’) number has risen considerably. This may also impact the quality of teachers at these prestigious B-schools over time,” said SV Nathan, chief talent officer at Deloitte India. Currently, IIM-Ahmedabad has 97 full-time faculty members for 1,136 students, IIM-Lucknow has 82 for 1,025 students and Indore has 100 faculty members for 1,500 students.

This year, IIM-Kozhikode is adding a new section with 60 students, which would take its gross student headcount to close to 800 even as the faculty number stays at 68. IIMs like Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Bangalore scout for young faculty — mainly PhDs with some experience —from campuses in the US and Europe. At senior level, that would be from industry and other IIMs, said IIM-Kozhikode dean for administration and development C Raju. Compensation for faculty members at IIMs ranges between Rs 1.2 lakh and Rs 2.8 lakh per month.

To make teaching attractive, some None of the institutes meet the faculty-student ratio of 1:10 with young PhDs giving teaching a miss; IIMs increasing seats and classes IIMs may Need a Lesson in Managing Faculty Crunch established IIMs provide grants on research, financial incentives on journal publications which could be as much as twice the compensation packages. While pay is moderate at IIMs compared with other top B-schools and industry for similar jobs, experts say that should not be allowed to pose a challenge in attracting talent.

“The opportunities for research and consulting work that an IIM faculty gets cannot be matched by any of the private B-schools,” said Narayanan Ramaswamy, partner and head of the education practice at KPMG India. “While IIMs would continue to stay coveted for management students, the teaching pool is not growing,” he added.

According to Ramaswamy, young PhD fellows prefer industry research to teaching as the former is more lucrative.