IIT Madras launches first-of-its-kind techMBA programme for undergraduate students

Department of Management Studies will offer the foundational techMBA courses during the third and fourth years of all UG programmes
Students of the Management Department, IIT Madras (Pic: IITM)
Students of the Management Department, IIT Madras (Pic: IITM)

Indian Institute of Technology Madras is launching a first-of-its-kind programme, techMBA, for its undergraduate (UG) students from all the engineering streams. The students taking techMBA programme will be awarded two degrees, Engineering UG degree (B.Tech.) and Master’s degree in Management (MBA).

The programme will be a part of the Five-Year Inter-Disciplinary Dual Degree (IDDD) programmes and is conceptualised by the Department of Management Studies (DOMS), IIT Madras. The Institute is introducing the programme from the Academic Year 2019-20 and it will have an intake of 25-30 students.

Department of Management Studies will offer the foundational techMBA courses during the third and fourth years of all UG programmes. The eligibility criteria for opting for the courses in the fifth year are CGPA, departmental aptitude test and/or personal interview.

Highlighting the unique positioning of the techMBA program, Prof. G. Arun Kumar, Head, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras, said, “We believe techMBA program would be a trendsetter academically and a game changer professionally. We look forward to collaborating with the far-sighted corporations to invest our energies in the development of the next generation millennial talent founded on the pillars of technological depth, managerial breadth and business wisdom.”

The IDDD programme enables the undergraduate students to utilize the fifth year of the course for specialising in the newly-formulated curricula that integrates and synergizes technology and management disciplines. The uniqueness of the techMBA lies in its learning outcomes, curriculum design, and pedagogy, which aim to combine the academic rigour with the practices from the organisational trenches.

"We have created multiple options for our undergrad students to upgrade to a dual degree and this is one such option. This is called techMBA because this is a technologically focused MBA, not B Tech and MBA and the curriculum is very different from a regular MBA course. The idea is to help students use their technical skills and develop managerial skills on top of that — use technology in management and vice versa. This is a USP because all the others teach technology and management separately but this goes beyond the combination of B Tech and MBA," says Professor Rahul Marathe, Department of Management Studies, IIT-M.

The course is only meant for IIT students currently and the final degree will be provided by IIT, though the students will also have opportunities to go study abroad for a semester or so at multiple partner universities. The students will go through a separate selection process for this specific course.

The Department of Management Studies at IIT Madras formulated the techMBA programme after due analysis of the emerging talent needs of the global industries, the new career opportunities in the digital economy and the evolutionary advancement of management programmes across the world.

The programme aims to impart business acumen to engineering students while inculcating management mindset for handling complex decision-making problems and shaping technology-driven organisational transformation. The curriculum judiciously blends courses from business functions, performance analytics and transformation technologies.

The programme will prepare students for future career options, be it Management Innovators in industries or Thought Leaders in consultancies or Technopreneurs in deep technology domains. It will also enable the students to participate in the academic exchange programmes with the world-renowned universities, which evinced interest in offering specially designed courses. 

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