Towards making Dubai a hub for higher education

The Institute of Management Technology (IMT), well-known B-school in Dubai, is all set to align with the vision of  the leadership in making Dubai a hub of higher education. In an exclusive interview with Khaleej Times, Dr Janakiraman Moorthy, Dubai Director of IMT speaks about the institute’s plans to become the top university in the region.

Excerpts from the interview.

 

IMT is celebrating its 10th year in Dubai. How has the journey been so far and what is your vision?

We are happy to be part of bigger vision of the leadership of Dubai, making it a hub for higher education. We are real players in delivering and working towards it as it also gives us synergy with other institutes in the region. We are perhaps the only Indian institution accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the UAE. We strictly follow quality norms and all our programmes confirm to the National Quality Framework, or NQF. We are purely a management school but feel there is a need to diversify and tap other avenues and disciplines.

 

What is the institute currently offering?

Currently we run four programmes comprising three graduate programmes and one undergraduate programme. The flagship programme is MBA (enrolling fresh graduates), Executive MBA, dual country programme and a newly incorporated undergraduate programme. The institute offers specialisation in International Banking and Finance; Marketing and Retail Management; Projects and Operation management and Human Resource Management

 

What is the road ahead?

Given the market and requirements, we are seriously thinking of growing into a bigger university in the coming years and venture into areas having high synergy with business, such as information technology and business. It will be a technology-business school.

The other focus is accounting. In that context, we propose to start Bachelor of Commerce in accounting. It normally takes a year for approval, which means the programme will takes off in. The other fields we are looking at is the Bachelor of Education. We want to bring out trained teachers by offering them degree programmes. So we will diversify with core synergy in all these mentioned areas. We see two to three years to establish this project and are optimistic about achieving the same.

What kind of response has the institute received and which nationalities score highest among the student population?

We have students from 13 nationalities, and majority are Indians. The institute currently has a strength of 460 students and we encourage diversity as Dubai is home to many nationalities. We are serious about having a diverse faculty as it helps serve better given the cross cultural environment in the UAE.

 

UAE being a tech-savvy country, what measures are being taken by IMT to incorporate technology in its curriculum?

We are serious about incorporating technology as the most vital tool for students to learn their ropes in professional fields. The courses will incorporate Information Communication Technology, or ICT component. This is expected to benefit students keeping the future trends in mind.

sandhya@khaleejtimes.com