IIM Kozhikode’s Kochi bet: ‘hybrid, technology-enabled learning’ takes physical shape

‘A new generation of hybrid, technology-enabled learning’ is how IIM Kozhikode (IIM-K) director Debashis Chatterjee described the institute’s newly inaugurated Kochi campus on Saturday, a six-storey, 40,000 sq ft building at Kalamassery developed by Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) next to the Cochin University (Cusat) Metro Station on NH 66.

Built in glass and pre-engineered steel, the campus was designed to house both management education and executive learning programmes, according to IIM-K officials, with room left for academic offerings to expand in the years ahead. Its classrooms can seat over 600 students, and its multipurpose halls can serve as additional learning areas.

KMRL managing director Loknath Behera joined Chatterjee at the inauguration. To start, the campus will offer the bachelor of management studies (BMS) and the executive post graduate programme (EPGP), with IIM-K signalling plans to add executive education courses, specialised programmes, management development programmes, international collaborations and digitally enabled learning down the line.

Chatterjee called the site ‘an urban learning centre’ that ‘represents far more than a new campus,’ saying it reflects the institute’s vision of management education that is ‘more connected, accessible and future-ready.’ He pointed to Kochi’s mix of industry, innovation and global connectivity as the reason for the location.

The inauguration lands as IIM-K marks thirty years since its establishment, a milestone Chatterjee wove into his remarks on the new campus, framing it as deepening the institute’s engagement with industry, society and the global academic community even as it expands beyond Kozhikode.

[Wikimedia Commons/by Gnoeee]