An IIPM Student’s Perspective
Whatever little I have written on this blog so far has never deviated from my passion or interest. But today I will be deviating to my duty. My duty as a student of an Institute “The Intellectuals” love to hate.
In order to ensure my views are taken on their face value, I decided to use my existing blog post & not take cover of an “Anonymous” blogger, which is used all too frequently to comment, write & accuse.
I joined IIPM (Indian Institute of Planning & Management) in the summer of 2003 & spent 3 years of my life in the Institute. When I started our campuses operated out of Qutab Institutional Enclave, but the last year was spent at the Chattarpur campus, the road to which incidentally got rave reviews in the Caravan article. (For the record, yes the road used to be dusty that time, got fixed later on)
As alumnus of the institute it has pained me to see people targeting the institute viciously, without looking into the matter in a more comprehensive way. Personally I completely DON’T SUPPORT blocking any sort of content or links on the Internet, thus whoever advised IIPM to pursue that strategy has completely ignored the basic laws of Internet, which is once anything & I mean ANYTHING gets uploaded or published online, it is virtually impossible to remove it completely. That’s the simple truth. Even Bill Gates is trying to get this removed 
I will try & quickly address couple of most important points raised against IIPM in a completely impartial manner.
Every year millions of students in this country pass out of High schools & look to pursue higher education, many of them choose MBA as their preferred path. I did too, but unlike so many I never harbored dreams about joining the IIMs, mainly because I knew I was not made to be 100 percentile student, like most of us. Plain & simple. But that does not make me dumb at all, does it? I appeared for an Indraprastha university entrance exam (#95 Rank, FYI) & my result afforded me the opportunity to join any of the top DU institute (error corrected as pointed out by a not-too-impressed commenter) IP University affiliated colleges which for some reason I did not pursue & joined IIPM. I was completely aware about IIPM not awarding degrees & not affiliated to UGC from Day 1. So were so many others who joined with me & thousands who have joined ever since.
I’m alarmed when I read comments from students saying they were taken for a ride & never knew that IIPM was not affiliated. People who don’t research before investing time & (significant) money into such important decisions don’t deserve any sympathy at all.
I would be the first one to accept some shortcomings of the Institute as well, 1 of which in my eyes maybe the way it was marketed, which clearly raised eyebrows of the IIM junta, or getting a movie star to endorse it.
But I completely dispel the notion of having the alumni come back to the institute & teaching students as something frivolous. In fact I benefited immensely from some of our faculties who were ex-IIPM students & taught us QT (always failed, can’t handle numbers) & HR. This is a very common practice in so many Ivy League universities abroad, & the contemporary viewpoints it brings to the class.
Most of our faculties however were very experienced professors who did their job well, though we could have made it even better by attending all of their classes but that’s another story.
I would also like to focus attention towards some very logical points raised by Vivek Kaul in his piece published at firstpost, & I quote
“In states like Maharashtra, where politicians run most education institutes, these MBA institutes immediately got a university affiliation. Setting up an education institute with approvals is one thing, but providing quality education is totally another thing. So even though all these institutes with approvals were set up, the quality of their education and infrastructure was suspect and continues to remain suspect”.
When IIPM raises the point of UGC being a bribe acceptance machine, nobody should have any doubt in accepting that statement as well.
Unfortunately I honestly think this issue has also been fired up by some rivals from the education industry, who take this opportunity as perfect timing to attract prospective students towards their “approved universities” especially with the admission season around the corner.
IIPM of course has shortcomings, just like IIM does (thousand odd seats put together for a nation which churns out millions of students every year, how is that fair?),. Just like PWD does (responsible for that dusty road), or even just like The Government of India does (do you even want me to go there?), but those negatives are bloated out of proportion to cover the goodness as well.
I will be happy to answer or revert to your comments & Dear ANON, other hacker activist groups, please don’t hack my little blog
It’s time we all look into the other side of this issue; it’s time to THINK BEYOND THE UGC AFFILIATION
Disclaimer: As I previously mentioned, I’m an ex IIPM student (2003-2006), & NO, I was not paid in any way whatsoever for this post. Nor was I prodded to write this post.
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So true !! I would like to take this opportunity to say few words about my Alma Mater i.e. IIPM. It’s been an amazing journey of two years wherein .I transitioned from a raw engineering graduate into a corporate professional with the right blend of skills
It’s good to hear the views of alumni. Unfortunately, by his predatory legal activities, Mr. C has invited a great deal of intellectual wrath.
Just for the record, i completely believe in Internet freedom & no censorship what so ever.
” I appeared for an Indraprastha university entrance exam (#95 Rank, FYI) & my result afforded me the opportunity to join any of the top DU institute which for some reason I did not pursue & joined IIPM.”
Since when did results of IP University started being used by DU colleges? Horeshit of an article.
Hey Rahul, thanks for pointing out the error, will correct it, my bad.
Thanks Vishal for you post. Please understand at no point I am doubting your abilities and skills. I know few folks from IIPM who are quite terrific in what they do but they do claim that IIPM had no role in making them what they are.
Few questions which are beyond the UGC affiliation –
1) For IIPM, it has been a view that most of the placements happen for the related firm, Planman Marcom. As I could see in your Linkedin profile, you also worked there. Also, it made me curious to know that after doing your graduation from IIPM, why did you choose IMI for MBA?
2) Claims about placements – Detailed search on LinkedIn will tell you that how IIPM graduates start their career. Inflated salary figures and number of placements(never audited by a trusted external agency and anyone who questioned was given legal threats). Same with Foreign placements. Getting students placed in minor firms in Africa and Gulf, is obviously foreign, but don’t you think it is marketing spiel and misguiding the audience. I would love to know how many students of IIPM got placed in Europe/US?
3) Why IIPM has so many bot accounts on Twitter which retweet everything positive about IIPM?
Thanks.
Hey Rohit, let me try my best to answer you, especially considering I have no current affiliation with IIPM/Planman for last many years now, nor i know current happenings there. I just thought of this post as a responsibility as an ex-student & nothing else.
1) Planman Marcom is part of Planman Consulting, I guess you wanted to refer to that, as most Planman placements happened through that, & onwards after that considering the candidate’s interest/ability/open positions etc.
I chose Marcom quite simply because I always wanted to be in advertising, and that’s what i been doing after leaving marcom as well. It provided me a great opportunity to work with some bright people, and learn about the business.
IMI is a Belgian institute related to IIPM, and I received my degree after completing 2 years of work experience.
2) & 3) I honestly have no idea about either of those points as I was never involved directly or indirectly with such operations.
Vishal, what ‘the intellectuals’ are talking about is the freedom of expression. It’s good to value and respect your institute but trying to hide its shortcomings (and probably fraud) is not a good sign. Let me explain why:
You say – “I’m alarmed when I read comments from students saying they were taken for a ride & never knew that IIPM was not affiliated. People who don’t research before investing time & (significant) money into such important decisions don’t deserve any sympathy at all.”
This statement reminds me of the minister who said girls are raped because they wear short clothes or go out of home late. It’s their fault. I am sorry but a student not being able to find out that he or she is dealing with a fraud, doesn’t make the fraud any less guilty.
“In states like Maharashtra, where politicians run most education institutes, these MBA institutes immediately got a university affiliation. Setting up an education institute with approvals is one thing, but providing quality education is totally another thing. So even though all these institutes with approvals were set up, the quality of their education and infrastructure was suspect and continues to remain suspect”.
Of course. In fact we won’t believe if you told us that universities get licences without bribes. But my question is – so what? This still doesn’t give IIPM any right to get URLs blocked on net and that too of regular bloggers and magazines. And I am sure IIPM managed to get these URLs blocked in the very same way as these other universities get licences.
And Vishal, this is not about you. I can completely understand your attachment to your institute but what IIPM did is probably the dumbest thing they could ever do.
I have replied to you in a comment below
“People who don’t research before investing time & (significant) money into such important decisions don’t deserve any sympathy at all.”
Precisely why IIPM is getting those URLs blocked. They don’t want them to research. Wake up!!!!!
See my next comment for your reply
Khushi & Dosman, ideally I should never reply “both” of you, you guys are posing as 2 different people but have the same IP address? How’s that possible for a start?
BUT, let me try to answer both of you.
1) I’m not a present student of IIPM (2003 – 2006) nor related to them in any way, for past many many years now, so I’m not aware of recent past or current happenings
2) No where in post I have tried to hide anything, the fraud you talk about never happened with me or with anyone in my batch.
3) Comparing educational research with rape is an inappropriate example, infact the issue of rape to me is far more sensitive, so I won’t even go there.
4) I’m a firm believer of Internet freedom & no censorship at all, I have made that clear in my post, as well as some comments above. Kindly take note of them. Trying to get anything banned online is UNACCEPTABLE.
Let me reassert once again my disappointment at the fact of “you 2″ concealing your identities & then posting anonymously, from the SAME IP. This is completely against your own attitude towards online bans & censorship, making me doubt your intentions.
Thank you
Interesting. The other side of the story.
The reason “so many” people are after IIPM, is because the IIMs have started charging 12-15 lakh rupees of fees for one MBA course. Now there is a large pool of people, who are working in the industry with that much amount of loan, frustration pent up and the only outlet is Arindam Chaudhari. This is a point in favor of Arindam Chaudhari. It is no fault of Arindam Chaudhari.
The point against Arindam Chaudhari is that he uses the “Indian” word in IIPM in a hackneyed sense. One cannot abuse the name of one’s country. Mind it Arindam.
If IIPM is able to look at such plus and minus carefully, it should survive. Lest who knows what will follow.
Here’s another one from IIPM…
http://www.firstpost.com/business/the-hindus-editor-opens-up-new-paid-news-debate-669676.html
IIPM is a FRAUD and it’s in the business of fooling students. Accept it!
Galotia, I have only narrated my experience as an ex-student, who passed out 7 years back. Nothing else