TIRUCHY: Even as IIM Tiruchy gears up for its 10th convocation scheduled on Saturday, the institute hopes to ramp up facilities and infrastructure in the Chennai campus. The temporary campus at Ekkattuthangal in the State capital was set up in 2012, and a decade later, IIM Tiruchy Director Pawan Kumar Singh hopes the State government will be allotting land for it in Chennai to set up a permanent centre.
The Tiruchy campus is spread over 173 acres on Tiruchy-Pudukkottai road. While the Tiruchy campus continues to attract students, the Chennai campus is especially beneficial for working executives with its Postgraduate Programme in Business Management (PGPBM).
"I have written to Chief Minister MK Stalin requesting a permanent campus for the Chennai centre. This campus caters to working professionals in the city who wish to go for a postgraduate programme. Although this is a Pan India course, it attracts a lot of professionals from Chennai and other parts of the state," said Pawan Singh.
However, the number of Tamil Nadu students in the two PG programs offered in Tiruchy, namely Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM), and Post Graduate Programme in Human Resources (PGPM-HR) remains very low. In the 2021-23 batch of PGPM, of 265 students, only 5 are from Tamil Nadu.
The Institute has major plans to reach out to more students in the coming years. They also plan to revamp and revisit the programs in line with the National Education Policy (NEP). They are offering programs for which students need not give the CAT (Common Admission Test). These programs include the PGPBM in the Chennai campus, Executive Doctoral Programme in Management (EDPM), and certificate courses for executive education, which are available online.
"We are focusing on expanding the critical mass of students and faculty. We have increased our student strength to 360 students for PGPM and 50 for PGPM-HR this year (2022-24). We are also adding strength to our faculty and working on our online executive education programs which are very beneficial for working executives. We focus on entrepreneurship too" said Singh.
Dean of Academics Deepak Kumar Srivastava said, "We have a strategic plan, which will align with the requirements of the market and with the NEP. We are working on capacity building and skill enhancement and will revisit the course curriculum accordingly."
The director also said that they wish to be more visible on a global platform, hoping to get into government/corporate and consulting for social issues. He hoped that more students will work towards causes that will benefit society.
On Saturday, 227 PGPM students, 31 PGPM-HR students, 42 PGPBM students and 3
Doctoral students will be graduating.