New Delhi: The upcoming Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) campus in Dubai will begin operations this September with a one-year MBA programme and will also launch two research centres focused on case development and start-up incubation in its first year, institute director Bharat Bhasker has told ThePrint.
In April this year, IIMA and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Mumbai to establish the Dubai campus of the IIMA in the Dubai International Academic City. With this MoU, IIMA became the first among the Indian management institutes to set up an international campus.
The admission process for the first batch has already begun.
In an interview with ThePrint Monday, IIMA director Bharat Bhasker said the first batch will begin with 40–50 students, and the institute has a target to grow into a 900-student campus in the coming decade. Dubai, he added, was a natural choice for starting a campus because the institute has already been running executive education in the country.
Professor Bhasker said that as of now, the plan was to launch a batch of nearly 40-50 students this September for a one-year, full-time MBA programme. “Since it is a new market with new connections to build, we do not want to overburden ourselves initially. Unlike many global institutes, we also take responsibility for career planning, not just classroom education,” the IIMA director added.
Another plan, he added, was to introduce two research centres on the Dubai campus in the initial year. According to Professor Bhasker, the first centre will focus on case writing and development. The case method is central to the pedagogy of IIMA and something the institute has mastered—approaching lessons through real-world scenarios happening around it. The second, he said, will be a branch or spin-off of the existing IIMA Ventures, integrating incubation, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
“IIM Ahmedabad has developed nearly 5,000 cases, and while we use both our own and others’, the Dubai market presents an opportunity to create localised cases relevant to its fast-growing economy and corporations. That is why we will start a case centre there in the first year to ensure the classroom content has strong local context,” he said.
“We are also exploring tie-ups with local technology laboratories supported by the Dubai government, where Artificial Intelligence and robotics ideas are under development,” the IIMA director added.
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Programmes & faculty
A course for professionals will start on the IIMA Dubai campus in the first year, Professor Bhasker told ThePrint. IIMA offers a range of programmes for working professionals, including online courses, blended learning, and executive education programmes.
“We have already surveyed and engaged with the market, and there is a huge demand for a weekend MBA programme for working professionals. It will be a physical, weekend-only programme, as many executives we spoke with during masterclasses and seminars expressed their interest but said they could not leave their jobs,” the director said.
According to him, the Ahmedabad campus has already transferred one of the professors to Dubai, and he is now based there. Some more faculty members will make Dubai their permanent station.
“The first batch will be taught entirely by IIM Ahmedabad faculty. Our faculty will commute; some will go for 10–15 days, deliver part of the course, and return. We do not want to lose our culture or create a new one. That is why the dean of the Dubai campus will always be from IIM Ahmedabad,” he added.
“Over time, local faculty may take on those roles, but initially, we are taking the IIM Ahmedabad culture and placing it there. We will also hire faculty directly for Dubai, but they will also come back and teach at the main campus.”
Building international campus
The IIMA director said that it would take some time to build awareness about the new campus in Dubai and to attract students from a wide range of nationalities.
“We have already hired agencies to advertise in North Africa and GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. But since the physical campus won’t be visible until the end of July, I don’t expect a lot of students from other nationalities just yet,” he said.
The IIMA Alumni Association organised and hosted a pan-IIM event last week in the Middle East, the director added.
Given the short time between the April MoU and the September launch, the inaugural batch will have a strong Indian presence, Professor Bhasker acknowledged. “The first batch will have a strong Indian presence—largely due to the short runway. But we are getting very high-quality applications, including from people with GMAT scores of 750 and above.”
However, looking ahead, the professor expressed confidence that the Dubai campus would increasingly attract a diverse student body from across the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, North Africa, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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