LN Bhagat (second from left) at the syndicate meeting in Ranchi on Thursday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

IIM-R did not have to try any hard sell before Ranchi University to barter its intellect for some room, after all. A syndicate meeting of the university okayed the proposal on Thursday.

Ranchi University has agreed to let the cramped-for-space IIM use its extension wing of its physics department, which at present is at its Ranchi College building.

The premier B-school can of course modify the infrastructure existing at the extension wing to suit its possibly more cutting-edge classroom requirements.

In return, IIM will become the mentor of the Institute of Management Studies, the management wing run by Ranchi University.

The distance between the physics department building and that of Institute of Business Management is barely 200 metres. So, IIM faculty won’t have to huff and puff across two ends of the campus.

Teachers of IIM will also act as visiting faculty of the varsity’s management studies wing. This apart, Ranchi University management students can also pick the brains of IIM mentors through video conferencing.

The syndicate meeting saw V-C L.N. Bhagat, pro vice chancellor V.P. Sharan, registrar Jyoti Kumar and others mull the IIM’s proposal.

IIM, which started this year’s academic session with 166 students — the highest ever since 2010 when it started its operations in the capital — as well as two new courses, suffers from the curious problem of plenty.

Everything is going right for the prestigious cradle except work on its permanent campus.

Till farmers and the state at Nagri — 15km from city limits where the dream of a sprawling campus turned sour due to no-acquisition accusations — arrive at a truce or bureaucrats get a land brainwave for the IIM-R campus, there seems no long-term breakthrough in sight.

But as management books say, be a part of the solution, not the problem, the B-school decided to check out how it could get some legroom despite constraints.

They zeroed in on Ranchi University. IIM director M.J. Xavier had sent the proposal to vice chancellor L.N. Bhagat early this month, urging him to think about it and take a suitable decision on the matter “soon”.

The golden rule of barter — two parties who have what the other desperately needs — was a perfect fit for both the institutions.

“Under the terms of the agreement, IIM will provide our students books on management subjects. It also has verbally agreed to help us in campus recruitment for students of Institute of Management Studies,” said V.P. Sharan, Ranchi University pro vice chancellor.

“Now that the syndicate has approved IIM’s proposal, we will sign a formal agreement soon in this regard. The date for it has to be fixed according to mutual convenience,” Sharan added.

Besides this, the syndicate meeting also decided that the examination cell of Ranchi University would get a vehicle — an SUV — for official use.

A committee will also look into the issue of fixing salaries for non-teaching staff of the department of journalism and mass communication of the varsity, it was decided.