MBA SPECIAL..................... IIMs strive for gender and cultural diversity

 IIMs strive for gender and cultural diversity 

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) are trying their best to break away from the stereotype of admitting students who are mostly engineers and men. 

In an attempt to make classrooms diverse, authorities have widened their admission criteria for the 2014-16 batch to include more women students, foreigners and those from non-engineering backgrounds.

At IIM Calcutta, for instance, women candidates short-listed for interviews were given three extra marks. Similarly, IIM Lucknow gave a 5% extra weightage to women candidates and those from non-engineering backgrounds.

“The IIMs are often considered to be parochial and not women-friendly. So, we have been trying to increase the intake of women. This year too, we gave extra weightage to candidates from non-engineering backgrounds,” said Anandya Sen, dean (academics) at IIM-C.

Officials at the admissions office of the institute said the new approach had yielded results, with almost 17% of the 2014-16 batch comprising non-engineering graduates and about 28% being women.

Although IIM Bangalore and Ahmedabad have not increased the points awarded to women aspirants, there has been a rise in women shortlisted from 200 to 230 and 276 to 364, respectively.

Ayush Gupta, a second-year student at IIM Bangalore said, “My institute has a more eclectic mix of students from diverse backgrounds and this makes for healthy competition. The number of exchange students coming in has also gone up from last year.”
Others, like IIM Kashipur, are going the extra mile to attract women. Prospective women students are invited to visit the campus and hostel even before they confirm the admission. “The initiative has been taken to bring about gender diversity and to help prospective students make an informed decision,” said NK Sing, admissions officer at the institute. “The institute also offered to reimburse AC-3 tier train fare from the students’ home town to Kashipur and back.”
IIM Rohtak has started an online mentorship programme to encourage candidates — especially those from abroad — to interact with senior students. Almost 2,000 students have been mentored through this programme, said P Rameshan, the director of the institute. He added that all major ranking agencies also take diversity into account while evaluating these institutes.
IIM Bangalore, Kozhikode and Calcutta are also trying to expand their international faculty and students with the help of international B-school accreditation agencies. “Global accreditation brings us on par with other international institutes, encouraging renowned faculty from across the world to be associated with us. Student exchange programmes only helps expands diversity,” said Debasish Chatterjee, director, IIM Kozhikode.
However, many women are not pleased with this development. “Women are perfectly capable of making it to the IITs or IIMs on merit. Giving them extra marks or preference is unfair and puts a question mark on our capability,” said one such woman candidate, who has received calls from all the top IIMs

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