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Monday, December 12, 2011

So who qualify as IIM Ahmedabad alumni anyway?

Till I came to IIMA, the only people I used to associate with the IIMA brand were those from the flagship two year residential program. I was not even aware of the existence of other programs. But once I was here, I learnt about the existence of a much broader program list(with all participants being eligible for that tag of alumni except maybe the students here on exchange)
  • General 2yr program in management(PGP)-which racks all the headlines
  • PGP for Executives(PGPX)-one year fulltime program for those with 8yrs+ experience. 
  • Agribusiness management(PGP-ABM)-they share the first year with PGP and have a good curriculum but due to the lower admission criteria are viewed as poor second cousins
  • Management Development Programs(MDPs)
  • Faculty Development Programs(FDPs) for faculty of bschools.
I have listed the programs in order of the estimated benefit to participants, and the corresponding presumed bonding with the institute. While one may argue that all those who have resided on campus for any duration should be deemed alumni(even MDP/FDP), others may argue for only the 1yr/2yr program participants to be deemed alumni.


Any club(and alumni association IS a club) would like to keep its membership selective yet target the people most likely to succeed. By that yardship, extending the IIM Ahmedabad alumni association benefit to MDP participants who pay hefty fees, can be justified due to the halo effect they bring on the others. And for FDPs, while their participants have less headline potential, they would probably be more grateful to the institute for trying to rub off its effect on them. So per se, I don't see anything wrong with that. 


Notwithstanding the above, alumni are often defined by their batch. And this is where FDP/MDP program participants are left out/relatively isolated. Can the relationship with them be stoked and maintained through any better ways? If yes, that would benefit both IIMA and them.

1 comment:

  1. Nice Blog... The education sector in India especially Gujarat has seen coming up of some good and reputed Top MBA Colleges in Ahmedabad which is the fastest and most popular education destination of Gujarat state. These MBA colleges in Ahmedabad provides managerial skills that can give them placement in good multinational and big companies. Thanks for sharing.

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