How NMIMS is combining legacy with reinvention

On a busy day, the Vice Chancellor of NMIMS Deemed-To-Be University, Sougata Ray, has squeezed in time for this meeting. The modern campus in Mumbai is a beehive of activity as Ray generously shows us around, pausing briefly occasionally to greet his students. Legacy is a word that comes up often when Ray speaks.

“We have a strong legacy of more than four-and-a-half decades, particularly in management education. But over the years, we have developed into a much broader multidisciplinary university,” he says. That statement becomes clear when one realises the capabilities that exist across management, technology, engineering, law, and pharmacy, to name a few. “I see this as a transition from being a successful institution with multiple schools and campuses to becoming a truly integrated multidisciplinary university,” adds Ray.

Making that difference

Understandably, that is one of the things that makes NMIMS unique, which, to Ray, brings forth several possibilities for students and faculty. “A narrowly focused institution may find that more difficult to create,” says Ray.

Being in India’s financial capital Mumbai, home to a large number of companies, puts NMIMS in a good position. “We have had a strong relationship with business but that needs to evolve. Industry should not simply be a recruiter of our students but become a partner in learning, research, innovation, and capability building” he says. Finally, Ray mentions the B-school’s ability to combine legacy with reinvention. “While legacy gives us credibility, it also comes with the confidence to change. The best way to honour a legacy is to make sure the institution remains relevant to the next generation.”

With its multiple campuses—Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Indore, and Sanand—NMIMS, he maintains, has put together an ecosystem where students get opportunities to benefit from depth and breadth within disciplines. “One NMIMS does not mean making all our schools or campuses identical. I would describe it as unity without uniformity,” says Ray. At a time when boundaries within disciplines are increasingly becoming porous, the ability to stand out is greater. “Imagine the possibilities when a management student works with an engineer, a lawyer, a designer or a technology student on a real-world problem. That is where multidisciplinary education becomes meaningful and powerful,” he says.

Readying itself

Like any other B-school, how an MBA reorients itself to a more demanding and diverse environment remains a challenge for NMIMS, too. “We are building a university that combines academic excellence, technology, and multidisciplinary learning with human capabilities, which will become even more important in an AI-driven world,” says Ray. In his mind, five ideas are interconnected, starting with the legacy to one NMIMS, and from there to multidisciplinary capability to making future-ready human beings, to eventually creating an impact.

According to him, that multidisciplinary approach is borne by rationale. Ray thinks the problems that India and the world will face over the next decade will not come neatly labelled as those relating to management, technology, legal or healthcare. “Increasingly, they will be a combination of all these and that’s where a multidisciplinary university has a tremendous advantage,” he says.

In the time to come, the aim, not surprisingly, is to have disciplines genuinely interacting with one another. How that takes place in an age of AI and a surfeit of technology will be a tough one to answer. “I would like NMIMS to be recognised not merely as a larger university but as a more consequential university, impacting with diversity, scale, reach, agility and quality,” says Ray in response to a question on the form and shape of the B-school in five years.

To him, nothing will be more satisfying than an alumnus who years after graduation says, “NMIMS prepared me not merely for a career but for a life of learning, leadership and impact. That is a far more meaningful measure of educational success,” he sums up with a smile.

@krishnagopalan