IIM Sambalpur Director Interview: Number of seats will increase, new programmes will be launched with new campus

We are hoping by 2022 we will have the campus ready for students and faculty, told Dr Mahadeo Jaiswal, the Founding Director of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Sambalpur.  

The sudden outbreak of the novel coronavirus around the globe severly affected academic activities across the world. In an exclusive interview with Shiksha.com, Dr Mahadeo Jaiswal, the Founding Director of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Sambalpur, talked about the b-school's academic and placement strategy, the developments in regards to the institute's new campus, newly launched programmes, their strategy on improving gender diversity in the institute and more. 

Checkout some important excerpts from the interview below:

Q: How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact IIM Sambalpur's academic and placement strategy?

Back in 2018, we introduced the innovative pedagogy of Flipped Classrooms at IIM Sambalpur. This helped us transition smoothly as soon as the country went under lockdown. Moreover, our classes are equipped with smartboards and the use of Learning Management Software ensured that our students do not suffer any learning losses. We even conduct all our examinations through an online proctoring system. IIM Sambalpur is the first IIM to implement the idea of flipped classroom, a learning environment where the basic concepts are learnt in digital mode and in the class the experiential learning happens through live project from the industry.

The pandemic has acted as an equalizer. Earlier a majority of big recruiters would prefer going to bigger towns but now with the whole process of recruitment going online, they have also been recruiting from IIMs in smaller towns. It has turned out as an advantage for us since every company is now doing recruitment online. Earlier they would not prefer coming to our campus due to odd locations and fewer students as compared to the older IIMs but now with the whole process going online, they haven’t been differentiating between IIMs. IIM Sambalpur had close to 140 companies including Nielsen, Reliance Retail, Ramco Systems, Tech Mahindra, Mindtree, Amul, Vedanta, HCL, SBI Life and Tata Steel BSL among others visiting the campus this season. The graduates were offered diverse roles across marketing, sales, BFSI, operations, consulting, analytics and ITeS among others. The institute witnessed more than 90 per cent increase in the companies visited for recruitment thereby surpassing its previous placement records. The institute also saw more than 110 companies participate in summer placement process for batch strength of 157 students. It also had a pool of first-time recruiters including Google, Adani Ports, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Bank of Baroda, IMCD India, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, DSM Group and IBM among others.

Q: Is the institute organizing any special training programs for faculty in terms of blended teaching?

Yes, we did train our teachers last year for our initiative of Flipped classrooms. Both our faculty members and students received training in order to learn, acclimatize and envision a new blended mode of learning.

Q: On August 9, the Odisha government allotted additional land for setting up of permanent campus of IIM, Sambalpur. By when we will be witnessing the infrastructure? Is there anything new that the institute is planning to add to the campus for students?

IIM Sambalpur has received generous support from Govt. of Odisha in the form of 200 acres of land being provided by them for the construction of proposed campus. We are hoping by 2022 we will have the campus ready for students and faculty. We plan to set up a separate incubation center for providing entrepreneurial education to local communities and others. The land which will be an extension of the new campus itself may be utilized for that. The Ministry of Education has extended continued administrative support and financial grant to the tune of Rs. 401.97 crores for the realization of this project. The project is time-bound to be completed by April 2022. The proposed campus will be a fully equipped state-of-art structure with energy-efficient green features as per GRIHA standards. The new and permanent campus of the institute will have a green campus with maximum usage of renewable energy. The heritage and art of Odisha will also reflect in the building design. IIM Sambalpur had assigned NBCC (India) Ltd., A Govt. of India under the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, for providing the “Project Management Consultancy” services.

Q: Reports suggest that IIM Sambalpur plans to sign an agreement with Sambalpur University to open a new skill center inside the latter’s campus. What are the skill courses that the institute is planning to introduce here?

Talks are still on for this collaboration, and we want to wait for the opportune moment to make any announcement about it.

Q: Management education is going through a transformation phase what sectors are going to see a surge in demand for management graduates?

The pandemic has given a boost to a lot of different sectors like e-commerce, pharma, organic farming based industry, telemedicine, edtech, data science, cloud chain, cryptocurrency, digital payment, Electric Vehicles and clean energy and all these sectors will witness a rise in demand for management students. Digitization itself will become a crucial industry that will also see a demand for management graduates.

Q: What are the new courses and programs that IIM Sambalpur is planning to offer in the near future?

We have recently launched our Executive MBA degree program for working professionals and our first ever batch will soon begin classes. We do plan to introduce more courses once we move to our new campus.

Q: Will there be any increase in the number of seat intakes?

The number of seats will increase once we move to new campus and have a bigger infrastructure to accommodate more students.

Q: Will IIM Sambalpur aspirants face any fee hike in the upcoming admission session?

There will not be any hike in the fees.

Q: How is the institution working on improving gender diversity at campus?

Inclusivity is one of the core values of IIM Sambalpur and we have consistently recorded one of the highest gender diversities among the IIMs of the country since 2019. The ecosystem we have created based on the 3I's of Innovation, Inclusiveness and Integrity has been instrumental in creating this difference. As part of the Inclusiveness policy of our core values of 3 I’s, since 2019 we made a change to our admission policy where we give 5% reduction in CAT percentile to female candidates as compared to male candidates while calling for Personal Interview and then

create common merit. Additionally, Innovative learning pedagogy such as Flipped Classroom and good placement records have also played a vital role in attracting the talented girls and boys at IIM Sambalpur. We became the first IIM in 2019 MBA admission with the highest gender-inclusive diversity of 49% female students in MBA, 44% in 2020 and 48% female in 2021.

Q: Recently, IIM Sambalpur collaborated with Flipkart to support small businesses are we going to see more of such collaborations in the future? Tell us about IIM Sambalpur’s vision and objective behind such collaborations?

One of the prime objectives of IIM Sambalpur has been boosting the SME sector and promoting local Sambalpuri handloom and handicrafts. To become a $5 trillion country, we cannot be dependent on a few large companies only. We must work towards making every household a business family and if 1 million SMEs can create 1-100 million dollars each, we can achieve more than just $5 trillion. We have set an incubation center with MSME, Govt of India and are also working with India SME Forum to further enhance this sector. Our partnership with Flipkart and the e-commerce industry will help strengthen the spirit of entrepreneurship by creating opportunities to leverage technology and accelerate growth for small businesses and artisans. By combining institutional learning and practical industry experience, we aim to provide entrepreneurs best practices and deeper insight on how to leverage e-commerce for their growth. We are hopeful that weavers, artisans and farmers will leverage this opportunity to showcase their skills and high-quality traditional heritage products to a national consumer base and reach new heights and recognition.

Q: How are you planning to take IIM Sambalpur among the top B-schools?

We are focusing on quality, innovation, research and collaboration to take IIM Sambalpur among the top B Schools of the country. We will create more innovation, more research and better experiential learning to make the institute reach its true potential.

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