IIM classrooms now have a more diverse character

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

premier B-schools, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), MBA classes are getting more diverse than ever. Where once the student ratio was heavily skewed in favour of engineers, the Class of 2025 has a significant percentage from other backgrounds including arts/humanities, commerce, science, law, among others. At IIMs Ahmedabad, Kozhikode, Indore and Kashipur, there are at least 4 non-engineering students in every 10 students; while IIM Calcutta and IIM Bangalore have 30% and 17% students from non-engineering backgrounds respectively, officials told ET.

On the gender front, most IIMs continue to have 30% women representation. But on academic diversity, all institutes have improved ratios. «Diversity is an imperative for IIM Ahmedabad.

We are happy that we have been able to get the best of students from diverse backgrounds year on year,» director Bharat Bhasker told ET. IIM Ahmedabad, unlike other IIMs, does not use any special points or quotas to increase diversity numbers. But it offers scholarships to encourage people from under-represented genders or those who had to take a career break for various reasons, including maternity leave, said Bhasker.

For many IIMs, special measures have helped. IIM Calcutta introduced the academic diversity factor for bachelor's degree to attract students from non-engineering backgrounds as the institute was concerned about the gender ratio and the fact that over 90% of its students came from engineering for some time. The percentage of non-engineering students rose from 8% on average to around 23-25% for the last two batches.