The Higher Education Review

In a world that is increasingly propelled by technology, institutional level research forms the mainspring of nation’s growth. At International Management Institute (IMI), one of the premier B-Schools in India with three decades of rich legacy in management education, consultancy and research is ‘A way of Life’ for faculty members, students and the institute as a whole. Historically, IMI’s full-time faculty members have been working on the creation of new knowledge with an objective of supporting companies in a changing world. When IMI expanded their operations from the nation’s capital region to the eastern parts with a new campus in Bhubaneswar in 2011, things were not different. In a very short period of time, the institution has built strong affiliations with industries across the country and has created an eclectic, learned and committed team of professionals drawn from the varied streams of discipline with nearly two- third of them having industry and/or international recognition.“Education is primarily based on three powerful concepts; Creation of Knowledge, Dissemination of Knowledge and Application of Knowledge. The need of the hour is to emphasize more on application of the knowledge and to make our students competent managers for effective decision making who can eventually transform into global leaders,” says Prof. Ramesh Behl, Director, IMI Bhubaneswar. In today’s scenarios, one of the major challenges which modern day B Schools face is to keep themselves abreast with latest developments in the field of management education. At IMI Bhubaneswar, new methods of effective imparting takes front stage and accordingly the outdated methods eventually phase out. “B-Schools are known for its quality of education and for creating quality education Teaching and Research go hand-in- hand. Research not only creates strong knowledge base but also elevates the teaching standards; thereby adding significant value to the classroom knowledge transfer,” explains Prof. Behl.

The management of IMI encourages faculty members to engage in continuous research and similar self- development initiatives that lead to research excellence. The aim of the institute is to contribute new insights to the national and international academic communities on one side; and the innovative teaching contents on the other. Although the institute offers financial support to the faculty engaged in research but emphasizes more on undertaking sponsored research and then bring the learning to the classroom and executive training sessions. On an average, the faculty of IMI-B contributes two research papers on a monthly basis in a refereed journal in a year, which is quite high as per global standards. This also helps faculty enrich their classroom and executive teachings. The recent MoU signed between IMI Bhubaneswar and EGADE, Business School, Mexico for collaborative research, faculty and student exchange, joint certification courses and organizing international conferences goes to show the commitment of the institute to provide global level platform for executing cutting-edge research.
“It is true that internationalization of education is one of the major trends in Indian higher education sector. This

indeed provides platform to students for an excellent exposure to learn and appreciate global cultures and working styles,” says Prof. Behl. To develop outstanding managerial talent capable of assuming leadership roles and responsibilities over time, the institute grooms the students by adding rigor beyond pure classroom activities. The core grooming activities include frequently organized group discussions and mock interviews by internal faculty as well as the external experts drawn from the industry. The institute also runs industry led certification courses, which is one of the key differentiator that makes IMI students industry ready from day one. Perhaps, the industry-readiness of students from the day one is the reason why IMI Bhubaneswar enjoys 100 percent placement with an average package of Rs. 6.9 LPA since their first batch of students entered into the employment market. While every passing academic year adds more laurels and reputation to the IMI Bhubaneswar, the number of applications crossed 3000 in the last year against the annual intake of 60 students, which means, there are 50 students on waiting for a single seat at IMI Bhubaneswar that epitomizes a modern age “Gurukul”. Today, with a mission to develop outstanding managerial talent capable of eventually providing enlightened and effective leadership and to collaborate with counterpart institutions, industry and government in the development and application of new knowledge for the benefit of society, the management plan to build IMI Bhubaneswar a world-class business school through achieving excellence in management education and research through continuous competency building. “With the changing business landscapes, IMI Bhubaneswar will be offering a number of short-term certification courses in contemporary areas of management in association with the Industry leaders to make students more proficient,” concludes Prof. Behl.