New IIMs: The Most Underrated Institutes | Myths Versus Facts

When one hears about the IIMs, one usually thinks about the Holy Trinity of ABC (IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta). Over the past 10-15 years, new names like Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore got added to that list. The most recent addition was IIM Shillong.

But post-2009, we have heard several new names like Trichy, Udaipur, Rohtak, Raipur, Ranchi, and Kashipur join ranks as the “New IIMs”. Again in 2015, newer IIMs, popularly called “Baby IIMs” like Visakhapatnam, Amritsar, Sirmaur, Bodh Gaya, Sambalpur, Jammu became functional.

And thus, “hell broke loose”. Or did it?

Let us now sit back, relax and analyze what went wrong, what was right and the scope for improvement for the most underrated MBA Institutions in India - the New IIMs.

Myth #1: New IIMs don't have infrastructure or classrooms.

Fact: All IIMs (except Ranchi and surprisingly Shillong) built between 2008-2012 have moved into their respective State of the Art Permanent Campuses, with the process ending latest by 2018 itself. The remaining ones are expected to move into their respective campuses by 2025 (gauging the astounding record of the second generation IIMs). Want to see the pictures? Visit the official Facebook page or websites of these IIMs.

Myth 2: There is acute faculty crunch in the new IIMs.

Fact: All IIMs face severe faculty crunch, not just the new ones. Unilateral bashing of new IIMs is therefore wrong. The problem doesn’t lie with the establishment of the new IIMs, but it lies in the answer to why research graduates don’t find teaching jobs lucrative. On a side note, one may be surprised to find that some new IIMs maintain the faculty-student ratio close to the 1:10 limit set by MHRD. (IIM Trichy, for example, has a 1:10 faculty-student ratio for a batch size of 360 students (PGP 1 and 2) as on 6th March 2019. Visit the IIM Trichy website to verify).

Myth 3: New IIMs cannot impart quality education.

Fact: Nothing can be farther from the truth than this statement. If quality education was a problem with the new IIMs, then can someone explain why the placement package figures are on the rise in these Institutes year on year? Even the baby IIMs are showing this trend.

Don’t want to focus much on placement figures? Then how to account for the fact that those Institutes are winning corporate competitions, expanding their international relations networks, bringing in International faculty, getting corporate and Government consultancy projects? Why are they getting certified by acclaimed International Organizations in the field of Management?

IIM Trichy To Work On District Development Plan

IIM Ranchi's PGP-HRM is acknowledged by the Society For Human Resource Management

It is certain that the high stake Government projects will not be handed over to inexperienced people. And Corporates would also shy away from giving increased pay packages to the graduates of these Institutes. Would you still like to go for an old Institute having 800 students where the students need to stay in rented flats, in addition to shelling out nearly 20 Lakh Rupees? Your call.

Myth 4: Locations of these new IIMs are quite remote, causing recruiters to shy away from these Institutes.

Fact: This is a subjective question. What defines the remoteness of a place? Distance from the airport?

Many IIMs and IITs, including the older ones, are set up in remote places or were in remote places till that area grew into a major city. Take the case of places like Shillong, Kozhikode, Indore, Dhanbad, Kharagpur, Roorkee, Jamshedpur. Do these places even have an airport (or had, when the respective IIT/IIM was established there)? No. But that didn’t prove to be a deterrent to the recruiters. There is an initial struggle for the students, no doubt. But give them say 5-10 years, you will find these Institutes create a niche of their own, attracting recruiters from near and far.

On a side note, places like Ranchi, Raipur, Udaipur, Trichy, Amritsar, Jammu, Vizag, Bodh Gaya have airports. Some have good International connectivity.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Icy Mountains as seen from IIM Srimaur.[/caption]

Myth 5: You cannot participate in case study based competitions hosted by some top organizations.

Fact: Companies like Mahindra, Cognizant, Deloitte, Yes Bank, ICICI have simulation and case study based competitions which provide the enthusiastic and imaginative minds to showcase their analytical skills, strategic mindset, and their core talent. Some of the organizations also offer summer internship PPOs/opportunities for the final offer to the winners and national finalists.

Also, even if a specific competition is not open directly to the students, to make it truly competitive and encourage participation of the students of the new IIMs and to keep itself away from quintessential b-school competitions, many companies like HUL (HUL LIME), Reliance (Reliance - The Ultimate Pitch) have introduced a concept called the ‘Wild Card Entry’ were the winners of a round enter the competition directly in the semi-finals on equal grounds with the other winners from the eligible campuses.

Students of almost all the new IIMs (IIM Trichy and Ranchi students are allowed to take part in almost all) take part in such events and competitions of great magnitude like Godrej Loud, Mahindra War Room, Deloitte Maverick, Yes Bank Transformation, HUL Lime, Loreal Brandstorm in numbers and many teams from the new IIMs have actually emerged as the national winners beating teams from the other top B-Schools in the country including the old IIMs and other Institutes.

Myth 6: Setting up of new IIMs would dilute the brand image of the IIMs.

Fact: The placement figures themselves present a gaping hole in this argument. So will the figures on ever-increasing cutoff percentile for securing admissions to these IIMs.

Every Institute faces problems in the beginning. So did the older IIMs like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and Kolkata. Imagine the conditions prevalent back in 1960s-1970s when they were carving a niche for themselves. Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore were also new IIMs back in the 1990s to early 2000s. We didn’t have a developed social media infrastructure to do a hair-splitting analysis of the minutest of their problems as we do now for the IIMs in places other than these 6.

It is interesting to note that these IIMs had witnessed rapid growth and have successfully displaced many of the non-IIM B-Schools over time to occupy the pole positions in rankings. The opening of newer IIMs doesn’t decrease the brand value. Rather the power of the “brand IIM” pulls these Institutions up to the level of their older peers.

Coming to the question of the quality of students, which might “dilute” the brand image. What choices does an aspirant have? To accept admission in a new IIM or go to some other B-School. Let me present this data to the aspirant to clear his / her dilemma: 93% of MBA graduates are unemployable

The report says a mind-boggling 93% of MBA graduates in India as “unemployable”. The report, however, says that IIM graduates DO NOT belong to this list of 93%. Why? And if we superimpose the year on year growth in placement figures, along with the addition of new recruiters, the myth stated above goes for a complete toss.

Myth 7: There is no “life” in the new IIMs.

Fact: Are you serious? Let's get the facts straight.

If you mean that fests don't take place, you will be surprised to know that a riot of celebrations and extravaganza occur every year in all IIMs during the college fests, with reputed Corporate sponsorship, and enthusiasm akin to the older IIMs.

If you think that nobody participates in these fests, visit the Facebook pages of these Institutes. The participants and winners include the ones from the older IIMs too.

And this is just about the fest. We at IIMs do celebrate and party hard, despite facing rigour which would dwarf even Baba Ranchhordas in 3 Idiots. Because stress and immediate removal of stress are both necessary. Because we learn how to manage time. Because we stay together as a family, not in rented apartments spaced miles apart. This you get to experience by actually being there in an IIM - old or new.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640"] IIM Kashipur Fest Agnitraya[/caption]   With this, my friends, I conclude my article. There can be counter-arguments to my views. However, numbers and data do not lie. Let not your preconceived notions deprive you of the opportunity to experience the once in a lifetime experience of a “Kathor”, “Hellish”, “Terrific” B-School called the IIMs. Reject them only if you feel that a hard and rigorous course curriculum is not your cup of tea.

For the souls who are curious to learn about these “underrated” Institutes in a bit more detail, click here.