Concerns over the quality of management education in the country marked the 24th annual management education convention organised by the Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS) in Hyderabad on Saturday. Speakers highlighted the need to focus on the quality of management education, particularly in the current challenging global economic environment.
Chief guest G.M. Rao, Chairman of the GMR Group, said: "The
management education paradigm is being questioned today for the kind of managers and leaders it is producing." Pointing out that "sustainable development requires a sustainable leadership", he said: "I have a strong feeling that a long-term view is missing among many leaders today in any walk of life, be it politics or business." Against the backdrop of what he called the "collapse of the global capital markets, from which we are yet to recover," he said it was important to question the priorities of leaders.
Earlier, Professor Mohammad Masood Ahmed, President, AIMS, said: "While today there are about 4,000 AICTE-approved management institutes in the country, reports tell us that only an
estimated 23 per cent of passing out MBAs are employable." He urged the 350-odd participants, including deans, directors, faculty and students from business schools around the country, to start questioning what the schools have contributed to society in the 63 years since XLRI, Jamshedpur, started in 1949, followed by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and IIM Calcutta 20 years later.
AIMS has 650 business schools as its members. Its three-day convention, whose theme is "innovative management education for sustainable development", began on Saturday. AIMS, established in 1988, calls itself a networking organisation of business schools in the country. Its mission is to function as a professional association for management education, with the core objective of playing a 'policy advocacy role' in safeguarding the interests of business schools in the country.
Special 
