Recently I realized that the number of Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) has grown to 13 from about 6 at the turn of the century. And there have been discussions about creating more IIMs, one for every state (that will take the count to 29). I was at an IIM last week chatting with some faculty members and we felt that the biggest constraint (amongst several) in creating these new IIMs will be the absence of good quality faculty.
The number of management PhDs being awarded every year must be rather small, a few dozen I suspect, with probably just a dozen or so coming from the original, more established IIMs. So how do you staff all these new institutes, how do you attract good teachers to move to non-metro / smaller town locations across the country (where the new IIMs are likely to be set up)?
It would be unreasonable to believe that you could suddenly attract many young MBAs to take up a regular PhD program, particularly with its 4-6 year cycle time. At the same time, you cannot teach an MBA program with mostly (corporate) guest faculty who have not received any academic teaching skills. The middle ground could be as follows:
The (first 6) IIMs should create a new 1-year faculty development program aimed at professionals with at least 10 years managerial work experience. Like the Post-graduate Diploma (instead of MBA) that they offer at the graduate level, this could be called the Doctoral Diploma or something similar. This 1-year full time program could consist of a quick overview of the MBA program (like a 3-month management development program), learning and teaching skills (including case teaching methodology), basics of research methodology, a few electives in the chosen area of specialization and an internship (teaching an MBA elective as an under-study).
Would many professionals be interested in such a program? I don't know for sure but it can be easily tested. It is anecdotal, but there are already many who are teaching on a part-time basis and may be willing to explore full-time teaching positions. Also, even those that are teaching as visiting / guest faculty could benefit significantly from such a program.
Also, the Government (or the UGC or the IIMs, whoever makes those rules) should treat this Diploma as an entry-level equivalent of a PhD; subsequent promotions / raises should anyway be based on teaching, research and consulting performance.
The best researchers and academicians may still come from the (Indian & overseas) PhDs but this approach will ensure that we have adequate, good quality people standing up to teach the thousands of students who will be signing up at these new IIMs.
More thoughts about the management education space, as I spend more time understanding it, soon.