The Indian Institute of Management Lucknow (IIM Lucknow or IIML) is a public business school in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Established in 1984, it is the fourth of the Indian Institutes of Management and was declared an Institute of National Importance under the Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017.

The institute was established by the Government of India. In 2005 it opened a second campus at Noida for executive education, becoming the first IIM to do so. It offers a two-year Master of Business Administration along with executive and doctoral programmes. Admission to the flagship MBA is through the Common Admission Test.

The institute is on a 200-acre site in the northern outskirts of Lucknow. It also has a second campus on a 20-acre site at Noida exclusively for one year full-time MBA program (IPMX), Two-year PGP in Sustainable Management and Two-year PGP for working executive and executive education. The admission for the two-year PGP and fellowship programmes is done through Common Admission Test (CAT), while GMAT score is used for International Programme in Management for Executives, a one-year full-time residential programme equivalent to an MBA program, while admission to the Two-year PGP for working executive program is done based on GMAT score or a competitive written examination conducted by IIM Lucknow. The shortlisted candidates based on GMAT or the written examination go through the Writing Ability Test and Personal Interview (WAT & PI) to get final selection. The programs are accredited by the global accreditation body AMBA, EQUIS and AACSB. The institute, therefore, has a triple crown accreditation. The institute has tie-ups with 24 leading B-schools across the world for student exchange. A number of b-competitions, cultural and sports events are organised by various clubs, academic interest groups and committees throughout the year.

History

IIM Lucknow was established in 1984 and is currently a centrally funded institution. It is the fourth Indian Institute of Management to be established in India (after IIM Calcutta, IIM Ahmedabad, and IIM Bangalore). Noted academic Ishwar Dayal played a significant role in setting up the institution; he served as the founding director of IIM Lucknow for four years. Industrialist Hari Shankar Singhania, who took over as the chairman of Board of Governors in 1992, served until 2007.

The Post Graduate Programme (PGP) was started in 1985–86 with 30 students. When the institute was established, classes were held in rented rooms at Butler Palace and subsequently moved to Giri Institute of Developmental Studies. The current campus was built in 1992 in the outskirts of Lucknow.

Links were made with three foreign universities in 2001 to start the student exchange program. The Agribusiness Course was started in 2004 with 13 students.

In 2005, IIM Lucknow established a second campus at Noida near Delhi. The Noida campus was established exclusively for executive education. Additionally, in 2015, PGP Sustainable Management (PGP-SM) Program was started from the Noida Campus. IIM Lucknow is the first IIM in the country to start an additional campus.

Campuses IIM Lucknow main campus spans and is in Prabandh Nagar on the outskirts of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located away from Lucknow railway station and away from Lucknow Airport. IIM Lucknow also has a city office at Aliganj.

IIM-Lucknow's Noida Campus is spread over 20 acres in Sector-62, NOIDA. PGPSM (Sustainable Management) and IPMX courses are main highlight of the campus.

Academic infrastructure

The academic buildings are constructed in medieval Indian architectural style with red brick wall texture. All the major buildings in the campus are named in Sanskrit symbolising the activities conducted in them. The academic blocks (Bodhigrih-I and II) houses classrooms and seminar halls. The Faculty block (Chintan) houses faculty rooms and Fellowship classrooms. The Library (Gyanodaya) spanning 30,000 sq ft has five reading halls with a seating capacity for 250 people. The library houses a collection of 40,000 books, 500 periodicals and online subscription to 1600 e-journals and 34 e-databases. The library building houses the computer centre, audio visual lab, Enterprise Resource Planning lab and a videoconferencing hall. The 15,000 sq ft computer centre has a fibre optic backbone network and provides wireless connectivity to all the buildings in the campus.

The Management Development Block (Manthan) catering to the short-term executive programs has exclusive library, computer centre and guest house (Patanjali) for participants. The Centre for Food and Agribusiness Management undertakes agribusiness research and consultancy projects and offers the Agribusiness Management course. The institute has an incubation centre (Abhiyan) for supporting the entrepreneurial plans of its students and alumni.

Social infrastructure

Fully residential, the institute provides housing to its students, faculty and research scholars.

While the campus has separate sports fields for football, cricket, basketball, volleyball, tennis, and badminton, most of the hostels have their own table tennis and badminton courts. A fitness and recreation centre (Umang) was set up in 2010, which houses a gymnasium, swimming pool, squash, and billiards. The multipurpose utility hall (Samanjasya) hosts most of the cultural activities on the campus.

The campus has a health centre with residential and visiting doctors available around the clock. The centre has an ambulance to reach associated hospitals.

The two guest houses Chanakya and Patanjali have 128 serviced rooms. The campus has a student activities complex with two banks, a medical shop, a travel agency, a supermarket, a post office, a saloon, a coffee shop, an ice cream parlour, and three restaurants. A Central school (Kendriya Vidyalaya) was established opposite the campus as a community school.

Environmental responsibility

Tree plantation campaign is undertaken every year on the foundation day and the campus, which was started in barren lands, has been converted into an ecosystem consisting of peacocks, monitor lizards, snakes, porcupines, monkeys, Great Indian horned owl and other birds. The main campus consists of open lawns and tree lined pathways. Rediff listed IIM Lucknow as one of the beautiful B-school campuses in India.

Organisation

Governance IIM Lucknow is an autonomous institution established as a registered society under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India. The IIM Council acts as an overseeing body to facilitate coordination among the IIMs.

The Board of Governors of IIM Lucknow is chaired by Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons. The board consists of 10 industrialists, four Government representatives and three academics in addition to the director and two deans of the institution.

Administration The director of IIM Lucknow, the head of the institution, is selected and appointed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet of Ministry of Human Resource Development. The institute has three separate deans for academic affairs, planning and development, and Noida campus. Each of the academic programmes is overseen by a faculty chairperson.

The non-academic functions such as Placements, Corporate and Media Relations, Alumni affairs, Admissions and Student affairs are chaired by faculty and assisted by student committees. Office administration is carried out without the involvement of faculty and is headed by the Chief Administrative Officer. The elected body of the students' council coordinates student activities in the campus.

Controversy on director appointments MHRD issued a letter in September 2014 (DO 4/4/2013-TS.V)) addressed to Jamshed J Irani, chairman, board of governors, IIM-L. It reads: "Competent authority have directed to assign additional charge of director IIM-L to Prof Srivastava for a period of six months with effect from 09-09-2014 or till appointment of regular director or until further order, whichever is earliest."

The institute did not execute the order and incumbent director Devi Singh who completed his six months of extension period, on 8 September did not leave office even after receiving the letter. As a result, there was confusion at IIM-L campus for almost a week. The allegations against Devi Singh, who served two term as director of IIM-L, ranges from nepotism to mismanagement of accounts. The Central Vigilance Commission also asked the HRD ministry to 're investigate' allegations of corruption against Devi Singh.

In a letter to the higher education secretary, CVC secretary KS Ramasubban has asked the ministry as to why the case against Singh is being closed when specific allegations have not been answered. The CVC has taken exception to the fact that the case is being closed on the basis of an "emotional reply" by Singh. CVC sources said the ministry had taken Singh's reply as final. "Without investigation how can general comments be taken as the final word?" a CVC official asked. CVC sources also said that the institute's Board of Governors had rejected allegations against Singh. "This is not how an investigation is conducted," the CVC official said, adding that the HRD ministry was to be blamed for not following the procedure.

Academics

IIM Lucknow conducts regular two-year diploma program in management, one-year MBA program for Executives (fully residential), Two year MBA program for working executives (partly residential), fellowship program and short-term MDP and executive programs. The management programmes of IIM Lucknow are accredited by London-based AMBA association.

Post graduate education

Structure IIM Lucknow offers master's degrees. The postgraduate programmes in Management (MBA), Agribusiness Management (MBA-ABM), and Sustainable Management (MBA-SM) are full-time residential masters courses. These are two-year programs, with the first year stretching from June to March in three ten-week trimesters, after which students undergo a two-month summer internship with a company or organisation. The specialisations offered in the second year are finance, marketing, operations, human resources, systems, strategy and economics — while the PGPABM course students specialise in agribusiness. Course of independent study and dissertation are available based on merit.

As a part of student exchange programs, students spend a three-month term in a foreign university in October to December in their second year. Every year around 85-90 students of IIM Lucknow are selected for the exchange programs based on merit, while around 30+ foreign students come to IIM Lucknow.

The Dual Degree Program, offered in association with the ESCP Europe business school in France, awards degrees from both institutes after students spend a year in each. About four or five students are selected each year for the program. Students, after completing two trimesters (July–September and October–December) at IIM Lucknow, spend two semesters (January–May and September–December) at ESCP Europe's Paris campus and return to IIM Lucknow to complete the final term from January to March.

Methodology