New Delhi, July 3 (IANS): Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) founder Arindam Chaudhuri on Friday denied the educational institution was closing down and said it had only changed its model to enter into technical collaboration of knowledge-sharing with various institutions in India as IIPM 2.0.

"IIPM 2.0 is a new initiative where any institute can tie up with us by sending an application for knowledge partnership. Then our faculty will teach students our five specialty courses -- economics, business strategy, leadership, entrepreneurship and personality development," Chaudhuri told IANS, adding he had announced about the initiative in May 2014.

He added that IIPM would only collaborate with other institutes once it is satisfied with the other courses being taught at the said institutes, which would call themselves IIPM Centre for Excellence.

He said that this would reduce costs of running campuses.

"We are changing our model of existence in every city except Delhi," he said. "Old IIPM campuses will not take any new students; the batch that would pass out in October would be the last one. The new batch will join our partners. We plan to have 30 such centres of excellence across the country," he added.

The institute's website stated that all IIPM campuses now only had old students and these campuses were being shut down as and when old batches finish their courses.