Prof Jeemol Unni
The Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Anand, Gujarat has a fresh ground plan for the next academic year. Some ideas in it include, taking in international students, new programmes, additional seats and novel infrastructure. PaGaLGuY.com met up with IRMA’s director Professor Jeemol Unni for a chat.
Other schools also have rural management programmes now, how different is IRMA?
Finally we are a school of rural management and not a school that has rural management as one of its programmes. People need to be aware of the kind of work we do at the grassroots level. The placements may not be glamorous at all but at the end there is a personal choice to do work in this sector. This course is not for those who are here to make some money and land a lucrative job at the end of the two years. It is for those who believe in a cause. We are a management school with a difference.
IRMA is not always the first choice for students?
Yes, we are aware that sometimes IRMA may not be the first choice for students but it is easy to find that out during the interview. Those who come to IRMA have to be serious about their interest in rural India.
Are there plans to increase the batch size?
Yes, our batch size is 120 in the last academic year 2012-14. We have decided to expand the batch-size in 2013-15 PRM. We will take additional 60 seats there. We have received an approval from AICTE for a batch size of 180 students for the academic year beginning 2013. With regards to the infrastructure too, we have embarked on a plan to build hostels and additional classrooms. Our website is being redesigned to become far more user friendly.
There is news that you are opening your doors to international students?
The Board at IRMA has in principle approved taking foreign students in the rural management programme, so we are thinking on those lines. We will have to work out the entrance exam and other procedures for admission for these candidates. The curriculum and field work segments (the USP at IRMA) will have to cater to the needs of foreign students.
Any increase in fees?
Our fees are way below that of any management school which is not fully funded by the government. Further we provide fees waivers at our institute to all deserving students. Scholarships are also available and we have set up an Equal Opportunities Committee to make sure that no student who wishes to study at IRMA loses her chance to do so. Bank loans are available to all students who wish to take a loan in special arrangement with banks.
Placements at IRMA are not thought of as glamorously as other schools?
We do not give an open invitation to all corporate organisations to recruit at IRMA unlike other B-schools. . The existing list of organisations coming for placements are mainly co-operatives, collectives and other development organizations. The Placement Committee carefully scrutinises any new request for recruitment from organisations that comes to IRMA. Those private/public corporate organisations that work for the rural sector in say agriculture, rural technologies, unconventional energy, medicinal plants, banking for priority sector in rural areas, micro finance, and so on are invited to recruit from IRMA.
You too get a majority of your students from a particular discipline?
Yes, we do get about 50% of engineers. The rest are from varied disciplines, science, agriculture, humanities, Economics and commerce. We have quite a few freshers and those with a year of work-ex. They are good students. After a week of induction at IRMA we send them to the field for an induction programme in rural areas. Hardly anyone drops out after seeing the tough life ahead for them.
Internships at IRM are quite difficult, one hears?
Our students undertake three internships segments where they stay in the villages and work for organisations working there. They learn to rough it out. Our internships are different from normal management schools. The students are evaluated for their fieldwork which is included in their final overall grades. Our students have to come back and write reports for us and also make presentations. Our students are field people and can handle all kinds of uncertainties. This is what makes our students unique as they graduate from IRMA with real life experiential learning, the unique selling proposition of IRMA.
Yes, we create rural managers but not in the sense most people in India understand. Our managers have learnt to live and work in rustic surroundings, where the real growth can be achieved. They are able to deal with uncertainty in the field and do very well in operations.
IRMA has a good number of women faculties. Is that deliberate?
Yes, we are a gender friendly institute. Seven of our 26 faculty are women. Our CAO is also a woman and so is the Director, so there is a focus on gender equality definitely. The gender friendliness is reflected in the fact that about half our students in the 2012 batch were girls, a choice made by the students. It is our observation that the women tend to be more from urban areas compared to the male students; I guess that is because in urban areas, women are allowed to choose their own career.
The backbone of any good educational institution is its faculty. We have dedicated faculty at IRMA. We follow the Govardhan Mehta Committee report for scales but we do not pay inflated salaries like the private sector b-schools. Still our faculty will never leave IRMA for these new schools as they believe in what they are doing. In rural areas it is possible that they have limited choice and do as their families tell them to, though things are changing in the villages as well.
Where do your students generally come from?
Our students come from all over India, be it Delhi, Kerala, Kolkata, Odisha, UP, Bihar. We do not have many from the north-east. We do not have many local students either. We would like to increase our intake from these areas as well.
Is the CMAT-IRMA test controversy put to rest?
Our IRMA test is different. It checks for different characteristics which other tests cannot check. Our students are different from the others which is why we need a test like IRMA for selection. We don’t just do interviews, we check very seriously for the kind of student we want. His/her temperament has to be different and coming to IRMA does not mean only getting a good job. We are here for a cause. Yes, our salaries are still good. Our average annual salary was Rs 8.4 lakhs last year. Lowest was Rs 3.84 lakhs. Only three of our students got under Rs 5 lakhs.
Any other plans?
IRMA is planning to open more opportunities for students through a new master’s programme in rural development by the beginning of the next academic year 2014-15. The IRMA academic expansion plan also envisages setting up four centres of excellence. These are the Centre for Sustainable Livelihoods, Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise which would include incubation, Centre for Governance and Public Policy and Centre for Rural Infrastructure and CSR.
We are also looking to raise resources and have a Corpus Enhancement Committee that will work out a plan to generate funds for this expansion plan. We received Rs 25 crore one time grant in the 2012 budget.