Engineering graduates have, for long, been claiming a more than fair share of MBA seats at top business schools across the globe, including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) with others constituting minuscule percentages, affecting the much-needed diversity in the class.
However, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM) has managed to increase the representation of non-engineering students to 33% in its flagship 2-year full-time Post-Graduate Program (PGP) 2018-20 batch, the highest in the past five years.
The 2016-18 PGP class had 20% students in the non-engineering category that increased to 32% in 2017-19, IIMA said in a press release.
The PGP 2018-20 batch has 67.17% students with an engineering background, 22.56% with commerce, 7.27% with science and 3.01% arts. Compared to the previous year, the number of commerce students increased by 2%. The average age of the batch was 21 to 25 years.
While the total strength of the class has increased to 399, female representation has also gone up to 27%. The 2016-18 batch of 396 had 21% female students. It went up by 7% to 28% in the 2017-19 batch of 395.
“Our admissions policy helps us admit students with diverse perspectives to contribute greatly to the discussion-based learning that we employ at IIMA. To have a broader mix of participants without compromising on quality will enrich the academic experience of IIMA students even further,” Professor Apratim Guha, Outgoing-Chairperson, Admissions, said.
For IIMA Director Prof Errol D’Souza, such diversity helps in enriching the learning process. “The institute believes such diversity has an impact on the heterogeneity of the deep and enduring attributes such as values, attitudes, opinions, and perspectives of students which enhances their creativity and performance in an organizational context,” he pointed out.
The PGP 2018-20 batch has 67.17% students with an engineering background, 22.56% with commerce, 7.27% with science and 3.01% arts. Compared to the previous year, the number of commerce students increased by 2%. The average age of the batch was 21 to 25 years.
As far as work experience is concerned, 34.34% are fresh graduates, 30.83% have work experience of 2 years and 14.04% have 3 years of experience. A total of 3.76% (15 students) have work experience of up to five years.
Also Read: Admission Open for ePGP 2018-20 at IIM Ahmedabad
In the previous batch, fresh graduates without any work experience comprised 42.28%. The 12% drop points to more number of professionals enrolling for the program.
Meanwhile, the Post Graduate Program in Food and Agri-Business Management (PGP-FABM) class has 46 students with 39% from the food technology followed by 35% from agriculture. In the previous batch, the numbers were 9% and 15% respectively.
