New Delhi: The seven new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are likely to adopt common admission criteria from next year. The initiative is taken in order to save thousands of IIM aspirants from having to assess complex selection eligibility separately for each of the B-schools.
As per the top government sources, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and directors of the new IIMs will on Thursday discuss the dramatic new proposal and a slew of other joint initiatives the government wants the B-schools to undertake. Of the total new seven IIMs, four of the IIMs this year jointly held personal interviews (PIs) and group discussions (GDs) at the second stage of the admission process.
Sources informed that but the Thursday's meeting may for the first time lead to IIMs collaborating on setting joint selection criteria. The plan for common admission criteria apart from common PIs and GDs, listed on the agenda for the meeting, is aimed at simplifying the admission process for students.
Moreover, the Common admission criteria if agreed to by the new IIMs could include the Institutes sharing cut-off determination formulae and the weightage they decide to give to applicant’s class X, class XII and undergraduate marks. The proposed admission reform for the new IIMs comes close on the heels of a controversial 2011 admission policy adopted by the B-schools, which denied several toppers in the Common Admission Test even interview calls.
These students screened out because of criteria that would have eliminated them independent of how well they scored in the CAT, but which were hidden till the CAT results were declared have challenged the IIMs in the Delhi high court. Besides, they are arguing they would not have wasted their time and resources if the IIMs had declared pre-CAT criteria upfront. The directors and the HRD ministry will also discuss plans for faculty exchanges among them and using information technology to meet teacher shortage problems, and put in place a mechanism for regular interaction between the IIM heads.
