Thought Leadership in Higher Education in India
Dr. Atish Chattopadhyay has probably pioneered more initiatives than anyone else in the domain of higher education in India, especially management education, and has held leadership positions in more top-notch institutions than most of his peers.
From SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) to Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), from IMT-Gaziabad to Jagdish Sheth School of Management (JAGSoM), Dr. Chattopadhyay has been trailblazing management education.
Even as he continued with his leadership position in the domain of business education, Dr. Chattopadhyay expanded his horizons and led Vijaybhoomi University as its Vice Chancellor from April 2020 to October 2024.
He positioned Vijaybhoomi University as India's first liberal-professional university. The alignment of Vijaybhoomi's pedagogy and education model with the top global universities facilitated its collaboration with leading international partners like the University at Albany of the State University of New York (SUNY), Texas A&M University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Texas (Arlington), KEDGE Business School, and HSLU Lucerne.
One of the most striking qualities of Dr. Chattopadhyay is his intuitive access to future trends and then designing education models in harmony with the mutable nature of the world. For instance, much ahead of his time, he had caught up with the fact that the world is shrinking due to technology, and business professionals of the future will be transcending national boundaries at work. This had led to the inception of 'Global Fast Track' for SPJIMR under his leadership. The course envisioned by Dr. Chattopadhyay enabled all students to undertake advanced specialization courses in top schools in the US.
As the Director of Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA),
He spearheaded the formation of an advisory board comprising leading industry experts to formulate the curriculum for Digital Marketing specialization. It was amongst the first of its kind in India and it continues to evolve with regular inputs from the industry.
Today, Dr. Chattopadhyay’s counter-intuitive brilliance also stands out in his approach towards the Al. The world of business will increasingly be dominated by AI and LLM, and to be extraordinary in a technocratic landscape, humans would need more of the humane qualities of empathy and imagination. While he emphasizes on a management student being tech-savvy to tackle tomorrow's work environment, he also ensures that the core values of empathy and social conscience are retained in his students.
At the Jagdish Sheth School of Management (JAGSoM), Dr. Chattopadhyay Initiated a study in association with NHRDN to understand the needs of Industry 4.0. The resulting insights led to the launch of a curriculum to groom the 'T'-shaped professional, with career tracks in new age areas like MarTech, FinTech, HRlech.
The unique philosophy that blends humane values with practicality of business has led Dr. Chattopadhyay to reinvent the curriculum of IMT Ghaziabad to include Sustainability & Social Responsibility (SSR) and Design Thinking & Innovation; these initiatives were eventually featured in the 'Innovations that Inspire' list of AACSB.
Dr. Atish Chattopadhyay has given many interviews and presented his views and insights on many fora. You can check out his videos on Higher Ed, Academia, and Leadership by clicking on this button...
Building Global Institutions
One of the premier qualities of Dr. Atish Chattopadhyay is his ability to take educational institutions to new heights by leading from the front, implementing sound management strategies, and ushering innovation.
AACSB accreditation of JAGSoM in two locations, simultaneously, is one case in point for his astute leadership. Matters were complicated because JAGSoM has two campuses, one in Bangalore and another in Karjat, Greater Mumbai.
Additionally, the two campuses are under two different regulators – AICTE (All India Council of Technical Education) and UGC (University Grants Commission). Given the regulatory challenges, and the locations spread across two states, Dr. Chattopadhyay demonstrated remarkable capabilities as the captain at the helm of JAGSoM.
As the Vice Chancellor of Vijaybhoomi University, Dr. Chattopadhyay had already paved the way for the institution to be aligned with the policy changes that were emerging through the National Education Policy (NEP). The introduction of NEP in 2020 led many educational institutions to reconsider their philosophy. But at Vijaybhoomi University, established in 2019, the agenda was way ahead in setting the education philosophy in line with the recommendations of NEP and the university emerged as a front runner in implementing the NEP in its true spirit.
Dr. Chattopadhyay also led JAGSoM (erstwhile IFIM Business School) to become one of the two Indian business school to be accredited by AACSB across multiple campuses and ranked in the QS World University Rankings for the Masters in Marketing, Masters in Analytics, and Masters in Finance programs.
Under his leadership, SPUMR rose to be one of the Top 10 business schools in India. With Dr. Chattopadhyay at the helm, two institutions, namely IMT Ghaziabad and JAGSoM, featured in AACSB's ‘Innovations that Inspire' list for initiating pedagogic interventions that made an impact on society, especially the underprivileged. Similarly, IMT Ghaziabad was recognized for its unique courses – Sustainability & Social Responsibility (SSR) and Design Thinking & Innovation – and JAGSoM’s Kanyathon was also featured in the list. Kanyathon is a student-driven annual charity marathon that raises funds to uplift the lives of the girl child and for women empowerment to make social impact aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 1 'No Poverty' and SDG 5 'Gender Equality'). The surplus funds raised by the Kanyathon event are disbursed towards the development of the of Kanyathon Shiksha Kendra at the villages adopted by JAGSoM in Kolar as part of the 'Unnat Bharat Abhiyan'. The Shiksha Kendra will largely focus on computer literacy, English communication, life skills and personal hygiene. The Kendra will be an interactive digital learning platform.
As the Director of Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA),
Dr. Chattopadhyay restructured the admission process that resulted in more than 100% increase in the applicant pool. At MICA, he enabled students to engage more with the institution's activities like driving placements, managing events etc., which made the students management-savvy even before they joined the workforce. Under his leadership, students of MICA won the Mahindra War Room for the first time in the history of the institution.
He also recognizes that the future of industry lies in being sensitive to the upliftment of communities and being sensible about the utilization of the resources of our planet. Especially when it comes to management students who would take up the mantle of leading various industries in the future, Dr. Chattopadhyay ensures that they get a healthy orientation of the spirit of giving back to the society.
His personal philosophy of leadership as a business educator is 'leadership that is enlightened.’ That is, a leadership that conceives a purposeful vision, induces self-introspection leading to self-development, promotes collaboration essential for addressing wider concerns of social equity, and long-term development of organizations along with the development of people. His opinions and initiatives are widely covered in the news media. To access them,
Teacher. Innovator. Visionary.
Dr. Atish Chattopadhyay has been a teacher for the past 25 years. Though originally an entrepreneur who occasionally taught as a visiting faculty in various B-schools, the moment he discovered that he loved teaching, there has been no looking back.
Preparing young minds for their own future and to shape the future of the world is perhaps where the teacher meets the entrepreneur in Atish. He is relentless in his pursuit to be 'future perfect'. A student is perhaps the only kind of product that is prepared using tools of the past but is built to serve the world for at least the next three to four decades. Management students are even more complex products, as they are expected not just to serve but also to usher the industry, and consequently the world, into the future. Dr. Chattopadhyay understands this complexity very well.
Like a seasoned entrepreneur hones and perfects his products to keep meeting the ever-changing demands of the market, Dr. Chattopadhyay has been reinventing pedagogy, realigning courses, and reviving the values for decades now, to keep his students relevant for the future demands of the industry.
The Higher Education Foundation of India recognized his “outstanding contribution to management education” and conferred on him the first Y K Bhushan Memorial Award, in 2022.
Passionate about internationalization of higher education in India, Dr. Chattopadhyay’s professional journey can be accessed here.