“COVID-19 Has Accelerated Many Plans Which We Had For Future,” Says Management School Directors And Professors

It is now undeniable that the industry has been severely impacted because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Correspondingly, B-schools have to follow up with the changes the industry is going through and possibly incorporate them into curriculum wherever required. 

Talking about the last couple of months, B S Sahay stated, “What COVID-19 has taught us in the last couple of months was not learnt in the last 5-6 years. There is a digital divide that the country must breach. Face-to-face teaching is irreplaceable but parents are not ready to send their children to schools and hence teaching pedagogy has to go through a major change." “Ground realities of the industry has changed. The internet life and real-life has merged, and we need to leverage technology. We need to prepare students in ‘what to do’ and not just ‘how to do’,” said Bharat Bhasker, Director, IIM Raipur.

The professors were speaking in a session titled “Landscaping The Management Education Beyond Frontiers, How To Be Industry Ready” at the recently held virtual Future of Management Education Conclave organized by BW Education. Other renowned dignitaries present were Atmanand, Director, MDI Murshidabad; Bhimaraya Metri, Director, IIM Nagpur; Bharat Bhasker, Director, IIM Raipur; B. S. Sahay, Director, IIM Jammu; Renuka Kamath, Associate Dean - Academic Services & External Relations, S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR); and Debapratim Purkayastha, Director, IBS Case Research Centre.

Changes B-Schools Are Going Through

“The education landscape is changing and the management education must survive. We must emphasize on the future role of blended learning as a culture. Post-Covid-19 what has become very important is CNNG: Connect, Network, Nurture and Grow,” said Atmanand. 

On the other hand, Purkayastha has stressed on the needs for building a multidisciplinary education system. “We are adopting a lot of active learning methods and we are seeing how we can bring perspectives from other disciplines like engineering, law,” he said.

On specifically for the curriculum changes that are required, Metri stated, “There should be a balance of professionally qualified faculty and academically qualified faculty in an institute. The two main differentiators now are skill and attitude building and to build competency, we need to focus on Project-Based Learning.” 

Students and faculty are now concerned about what would be the immediate future of campus education would look like and when to request students to again attend the regular classes. “COVID-19 has accelerated many plans that we had for the future. While the online is definitely the way to go, offline and campus has its own place. One of the key things we have to get to our students is the idea of life-long learning. I think we have done a fabulous job at adapting to technology,” said Kamath.