Just as the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad positions itself as a global brand, it launched Online@iima where it offers a host of short duration online courses. Some of these courses are also available on Coursera. “Among the top 10 Coursera courses last year, two were from India, both IIM-A courses. The Leadership Skills course has more than 180,000 subscribers, the other is a managerial statistics course which has 105,000 subscribers and has been launched in 137 countries. We are launching a course on digital transformation,” points out Diptesh Ghosh, dean (programmes), IIM-A. These entry-level courses are priced at ₹2,500.

“The fact that our courses are being subscribed across the world proves that we are a global brand,” says Bharat Bhasker, director, IIM-A. 

The one big trend that most businesses have embraced post the pandemic is a ‘hybrid’ model of work and IIM-A is no exception. On the Online@iima platform it offers eight four-month-long hybrid courses such as Executive Programme in Advanced Business Analytics; Accelerated General Management Programme and Senior Management Programme to name a few. “You need to come to campus for 25% of the component and 75% will be delivered online. You don’t need to spend four months on campus,” explains Ghosh.

The institute has also launched a two-year online MBA programme this year, which is a hybrid programme. “Students need to be present on campus for merely 30 days. Every term you start on campus with five days of physical classes, and then you would have live classes online. The faculty would be the same and our curriculum is 85% the same as our two-year campus programme (since you are working individuals, you don’t need to do certain base programmes),” says Bhasker.