Are top IIMs in India Winning Over the Academic Diversity Game? Check Full Report Here.

IIMs have been the foreground for world-class management education in India. Conventionally being the launchpad for engineers to ace as global business leaders, recent times have observed CAs, lawyers and even doctors or humanities graduates striving to tap into this marvel of a B-School in India.

Check: MBA Admissions 2020: Latest Updates

In real-time, IIMs have been incessantly panning onto creating an academically diverse learning environment; focus pullers being curriculum, scope and the surge for relevance in the present market. 

Check: Top MBA Colleges in India

As organisations covet a melange of business ideas to the table, MBA classrooms need to follow suit. Here’s an insightful excerpt straight from the IIMs highlighting the academic background of students:

IIMs Class of 2019-2021: Key Highlights

• Among new generation IIMs, IIM Rohtak emerged as the most academically diverse B-School with 41.06% non-engineers.
• However, among all generations of IIMs, IIM Shillong is the most academically diverse with 44% non-engineers.
• The IIM BLACKI do not find any prominent position at least among the top 5 ranks. 
• Among the legacy of IIMs, IIM Indore is the most academically diverse.
• IIM Calcutta is the least academically diverse among BLACKI institutes similarly IIM Udaipur and IIM Sirmaur among the budding IIMs. 

Also Read: NIRF Ranking 2020 for Management Domain

The report has classified business schools as per their batch size which is as follows:

1. Batch Size > 300
2. Batch Size < = 300
3. Batch Size < 150

Top 5 Academically Diverse B-Schools of India

Academic Diversity at IIMs: Batch Size < = 300

• With 44% non-engineers, IIM Shillong has the most academically diverse batch of 2020.
• Being relatively new among the IIMs, students of commerce background constitute 24% of the entire batch. 
• What catches off guard is the year wise trend of IIM Shillong: 72% (2018), 87% (2019) and 58% (2020) of engineering students that made room for other graduates.
• IIM Trichy and IIM Rohtak rallied their way among academically diverse MBA colleges.
• However, being a contemporary, IIM Udaipur slightly held back its academic diversity index.
• Even though the present index of IIM Udaipur is not satisfactory, its previous record alludes that time around it can rebound gracefully. 

Also Read: Top MBA Colleges other than IIMs Accepting CAT Scores

Academic Diversity at IIMs: Batch Size < 150

As per the above tabulation, IIM Amritsar with relatively lesser batch strength has 30% non-engineers compared to IIM Sirmaur and Sambalpur. 

Academic Diversity at IIMs: Batch Size > 300

For management colleges in India having an intake capacity of 300 for a 2 years’ MBA or PGP, it is supposedly challenging to strike a balance with a variant academic background. The below table below suggests a similar representation for the fact that more the batch size, less is the economic diversity. 

Academic Diversity of IIMs with Batch Size > 300

In this cohort, IIM Bangalore and IIM Ahmedabad have relatively lower diversity indexes. However, stakes are high on the fact that Class of 2022 will rebound with diverse batches.

Earlier in 2018, IIM Ahmedabad happened to be most academically diverse. But this year, it fell back as it chose to select non-engineers from the second selection round itself. 

Historically, IIM Calcutta has been the least academically diverse institute, despite the fact that a lot of information about the institute is unavailable for the present batch. 

Also Read: IIM Calcutta to begin MBA 2020 Virtual Classes from August 10

However, despite the larger batch size, IIM Indore with 29% non-engineers made it as the most academically diverse premier management institution. 

Bottom Line:

Considering all the compiled data from IIMs, it is imperative that academic and gender diversity are persistently the concerning aspects to date. With students from academic disciplines other than engineering still holding onto a marginal cohort at IIMs, a subtle shift is gradually gaining grounds.

Over the years, engineering graduates had an upper hand at the QA segment. Yet as organisations are constantly demanding CAs/CFAs, along with commerce grads, even doctors and lawyers are slowly cracking the core to make it to IIMs. 

As making way for students from diverse backgrounds to premier B-Schools of India, IIMs have a long way to go before they stand out for the equitably inclusive environment.