While launching Chandragupta Institute of Management-Patna (CIMP) little did Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar know his dream project would soon earn him a bad name among students. One year is on; the students who took admission in the management institute have started developing a sinking feeling. They see no future after graduating from the college.
Students of the first-batch of the CIMP, which was introduced a year back with all fanfare, are sitting on hunger strike for the last four days. Their fears of a gloomy career prospects writ large on the placards they display.
A student of the institute bemoaned, “We were promised the moon as the institute was touted to be like IIM-Ahmedabad... It has now become clear that the institute has reneged on its promise.”
The students are denied the permission to meet the chief minister who is also the chairman of the CIMP’s governing body. The students see a conspiracy of the vested interests in not allowing them to meet the chief minister. The student could however be able to submit their memorandum to the secretariat of the chief minister on June 27.
Among the many grouses the students have against the management of the institute are:
• Contrary to the promised specialisation in marketing, finance, operation, IT and HR, the course lists a pool of subjects with no specialisation.
• The same course is on offer from C-grade B-schools on charges well below the Rs 5 lakh CIMP is charging from the students.
• Disappearance of quality teachers from the institute.
CIMP director V Mukunda Das termed the agitation by the students motivated. The director expressed his inability to hire permanent faculty members as the executive committee of the institute had given approval to only hiring either visiting or contract faculties. Only on June 20 the committee gave a green signal to recruit permanent faculty members.