IIMs gear up to graduate from diploma to degree

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) would soon award degrees to their students instead of diplomas. The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) has set up a committee to draft an IIM Act that would make these institutes recognised by Parliament and enable them to award degrees.

The IIMs can, at present, only award post-graduate diplomas in management (PGDM) as they are registered as societies. The proposed IIM Act is on similar lines as the Institutes of Technology Act under which the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) function.

“The draft has been refined over the years. However, the context and technology will be different for the IIMs as they are solely post-graduate institutes while the IITs are post-graduate and post-graduate level institutes. This step will convert the IIMs into institutes of national importance,” said a ministry official.

There are 13 IIMs in the country of which six are old and the rest were recently established. Each of them function under their respective Memorandum of Associations (MoAs) and rules and regulations framed thereunder.

They are societies registered under the Societies Registration Act and are not dependent on government funding for their operational expenses and the ministry has been examining the issue of bringing the IIMs in the country under an umbrella legislation for quite some time.

The ministry had earlier said that bringing the IIMs under the ambit of a Central law will in no way alter their accountability to the Parliament or their

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