The board of governors of IIM Calcutta has started talking to some of the teachers who had earlier written to them about misgivings they have about the institute’s current leadership.
This weekend, 22 teachers attended an online meeting of a committee constituted by the board.
Some of the teachers who attended the meeting told The Telegraph they had spoken about the “absence of any forward-looking initiative over the past one-and-a-half years” and “the institute losing ground to other IIMs”.
The teachers said what they told the committee was a follow-up to the letter that 51 teachers had written to the board in December.
Fifty-one of 83 teachers had signed a letter to the board pointing out what they termed “deficiencies in the current administration”.
In that letter, the teachers had spoken about “a toxic work environment with a significant trust deficit between the faculty and the leadership”, the leadership’s mistrust of the faculty, an administration with “slow, erratic and gridlocked decision-making, absence of plurality of views on the campus”.
On Tuesday, a teacher told The Telegraph IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore had started new courses besides running the full-time residential courses. “But our institute has not witnessed the launch of any forward-looking initiative.”
He spoke of a “new data centre with massive processing capacity to facilitate data protection and processing of data for research by faculty and students” at IIM Bangalore and “facilities in Dubai to capture the executive education market” by IIM Ahmedabad.
“Newer IIMs such as the one in Kozhikode have launched master’s courses in emerging areas such as public policy. We don’t see anything in IIM-C,” the teacher said.
One of the teachers said he had highlighted before the committee the authorities’ lack of effort in filling up vacant posts.
“In January 2019, we had 90 teachers. Now, we are down to 83,” a teacher said. The sanctioned strength at IIM-C is 124.
“Bangalore and Ahmedabad (IIMs) have more than 20 per cent greater faculty strength,” he said.
A teacher said the leadership was cutting down on research in the name of cost control without realising that the course quality would take a hit.
“The consultative and deliberative capacity of the academic council has been curbed substantially compared to other IIMs…. The apathy to the consultative process is leading to over centralization and predominance of arbitrariness over rules,” another teacher said.
Most of the allegations were directed at the current administration led by Anju Seth, who took over as IIM Calcutta’s first woman director in 2018.
“We do not comment on the internal affairs of the institute. On the other hand, you should be aware that IIM Calcutta ranked first in the Outreach & Inclusivity Parameter of the India Ranking 2020 by NIRF. This parameter considers the representation of women across roles among other key points of inclusive learning and opportunities,” director Seth said.
“Last month, we were recognised as the only B school in the country to rank in the top-25 best B schools in the world by CEOWORLD — Best business schools in the world for 2020 rankings. IIM Calcutta was also ranked first amongst India’s B schools and 17th globally in Financial Times Masters in Management rankings, 2019.
“These are amongst many other recognitions received in the last 18 months. I, as a proud alumna of IIM Calcutta, along with the board of governors and faculty, am committed to building IIM Calcutta as the top B school in India and amongst the best in the world.
“I will also expect you to not be selective about using my quote in your story. You must use it in full. Please be advised to not pay heed to hearsay.”
The committee is expected to submit a report to the board that would meet on June 25.
