Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Report on IIMC governance irks faculty - Times Of India

Report on IIMC governance irks faculty - Times Of India

KOLKATA: The faculty of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta is up in arms against reports on IIM Governance' and Faculty and Research at the IIMs' submitted to the ministry of human resource development in October 2010.

At a meeting that ended on Wednesday, the faculty resolved to respond to minutes of the MHRD meeting that included IIM chairmen and directors in which the two reports were presented last year. "Some proposals of the two committees have already been accepted by MHRD and others are under consideration. The recommendations and proposals in the two reports will have a far-reaching effect on governance practices in IIMs. Some of the proposed changes are detrimental to academic work and will harm our reputation," said a senior IIMC faculty member.


"This division of responsibilities and freedom to faculty have helped make IIMC one of the best academic institutions. With minimal control and interference from administrative or government authorities, the faculty has created and sustained high levels of pedagogical and research excellence," professors said.

"We are concerned that MHRD, Bhargava and Balakrishnan committees made no attempt to include the IIM faculty in their deliberations. In the Bhargava Committee report, recommendations are unclear, contradictory and unsubstantiated. In a reference to management or executive development programmes (MDPs), the report claims that 50% of the faculty spend up to 50% of their time on these programmes... We find the claims to be exaggerated. Moreover, the committee observes that the director cannot evaluate the performance of the faculty nor have any disciplinary control over them.

Again, the faculty and the board of IIM Calcutta approved a system of work norms in 1997 and empowered its administrators to implement them," added a senior faculty member.

The faculty claimed that in the backdrop of the recommendations, the Bhargava Committee shows a clear bias for a unicameral system of governance that empowers the board and the director to control the institute.

"It has also made a recommendation to allow the board to appoint the chairman from an existing set of board members. This proposal deprives the institute of an opportunity to have a wider choice of suitable candidates," the faculty member added.


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