IIM Kozhikode looking for collaboration with Harvard, MIT, Yale University

Kozhikode: The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode is looking for collaboration with top global institutions like Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Yale University in order to provide global exposure to the Indian management students, IIM Kozhikode Director Debashis Chatterjee said.

IIM Kozhikode has international relations offices in several countries that facilitate international student admissions, student exchanges and research collaborations.

“As an institution that is always looked upon as pioneering, we must do things that are slightly different, nuanced towards Indian reality. So our mission here is globalising Indian thoughts, not Indianising American thought,” Chatterjee told DH in an interview.   

He informed that IIM Kozhikode would soon launch a global MBA programme in collaboration with Oxford University. The institute is also looking at collaboration to open a centre in Dubai.  

On startups, Chatterjee said majority of the startups in India shut down because of the lack of passion. “Startups by themselves are going to find their viability. What defines the viability of startups is passion behind it,” he said. As per industry data, over 90% of startups fail in the first five years.

Chatterjee said the IIM Kozhikode will leverage new technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to ensure quality education to a larger number of people.

“We are talking about 700 million young people of India who want to go to college, which is bigger than the population of the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, and Canada put together. Those who can't make it to IIM go abroad, not out of aspiration but out of desperation,” he said.

Chatterjee added that Executive Post Graduate Programme (EPGP) in management offered by IIM Kozhikode has gained popularity among mid and top-level executives due to its flexibility. EPGP in management is a two-year blended master in business administration (MBA) programme targeted at working executives.

The institute recently launched 18th batch of its EPGP in management programme. IIM Kozhikode director informed that working executives from a broad spectrum of industries including IT, consulting, aerospace, banking, public sector, energy, automotive, FMCG, healthcare, e-commerce and manufacturing have taken admission in the 18th batch of the programme.  

“With our partners we have launched the EPGP programme, which is the most successful programme that any IIM has. The cohort size is the largest of all IIM systems. We have graduated roughly 5,000 students,” he said.