IIMs discuss how to include SC/ST candidates in faculty

Directors of Indian Institutes of Management today discussed how to include people from socio-economically weaker sections into the faculty.

The director of IIM-Kashipur spoke about a program to train doctoral students from SC/ST category.

Directors of eleven IIMs and the dean of IIM-Kozhikode today met at IIM-Ahmedabad here for the fourth annual PAN-IIM World Management Conference.

Among other things, the issue of including people from socio-economically weaker sections into the faculty was discussed, IIM-Ahmedabad director Ashish Nanda said.

"We are very much aware that we should have diverse faculty with different life experiences teaching our students, and we particularly want to make sure that people who are socio-economically on the margins have the opportunity to be in the classroom (as teachers)," Nanda told reporters.

"Each IIM is very much committed to people of all backgrounds, people of the weaker backgrounds and under-represented minorities, through participation, at the same time maintaining the highest quality standards... we discussed how IIM Kashipur is doing this. Other IIMs may like to follow up based on its experience," he said.

The director of IIM Kashipur, Gautam Sinha, said his institute had launched a special fellowship programme.

"We have just embarked on this special drive to bring SC/ST doctoral students into the Fellow Programme in Management (FPM). While they will be doing this special FPM, we will also develop them to be faculty in IIMs, so five years down the line we can see results," Sinha said.

IIM-Raipur recently advertised special FPM programme for SC/ST candidates following suggestions from the Union HRD Ministry.

On the issue of reservation for faculty positions in the IIMs, the HRD Ministry had recently said the Constitutional provisions remain supreme, apparently suggesting that these prestigious management schools should enforce quota.