IIM uses redundant seats to attract foreign students

Academics believe that enrolling more international students can improve India’s B schools’ performance in the world rankings because they focus heavily on factors such as internationalization, foreign faculty, students, and global perception.

Attracting foreign students has always been a challenge for Indian institutes, as the country is not among the top global destinations for study. To get around this, some Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) centers have offered redundant seats in many courses.

Recently, IIM Kozhikode announced 50 excess places for international students in three full-time MBA programme: Postgraduate Program (PGP) MBA (20 places), PGP in Finance (20 places) and PGP in Liberal Studies and administration (10 places). ).

“Our classes have become more gender diverse in recent years with students from diverse educational backgrounds. Now we are turning to foreigners to improve cultural diversity. From rural Bihar to big cities, students from all walks of life are joining the institute. But most of the world’s current and future problems are global, And it requires a global mindset to come up with solutions. We have also associated with the study program in India and re-orientated the entire admission policy,” says Shubhasis Dey, Dean (Programs and International Relations), IIM-K.

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Students wishing to join these programs at IIM-K will not have to work hard to pass the CAT. Candidates with a postgraduate degree or equivalent in any discipline along with valid CAT/GRE/GMAT scores and TOEFL will be able to apply.

Day believes that these students can bring multiple partnerships and collaboration opportunities to the institute. The first phase of admission closed on September 15, and only fewer than 10 foreign candidates applied to fill the redundant positions. way up. It may be a few years before the landscape changes,” he says.

IIM Ahmedabad was one of the first institutes to offer redundant seats in two-year MBA courses. The head (admission) of the institute told, “The overcharge is 10 percent and is related to the lot size. As we increase the lot size, the excess lot entries will automatically increase. The additional fee has been introduced for the admission of foreign students into the MBA program. Admission is from through a variety of application processes.”

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For the Integrated Five-Year Management Program (IPM), IIM Indore also has a redundant share. Of the total of 150 seats, only 5 are reserved in the special category. No such category was entered into the other courses.

“The idea of ​​having more international students on campus is of paramount importance, but we have to be careful about which program suits them. Institutions should also screen applications as much as possible and take their countries of origin into consideration, as the motto is to add value to the classroom. Most of the time. , we receive applications from Indians with foreign passports. In international business schools, the concept of accepting international students is called employment. Our institute is also designing a plan to recruit students from foreign provinces and SAARC countries will be our main target”, says Himanshu Rai, Director of IIM Indore.

Ray adds that the lack of enough international students also affects the performance of India’s second-tier schools in the world rankings, as they focus heavily on factors such as internationalization, foreign faculty, students, and global perception.

On the other hand, academics are also interested in opening doors to “anyone and everyone” by decreasing the difficulty level of the admissions process. Director of IIM Sambalpur Mahadeo Jaiswal believes that excess seats are a way to lower the quality of students in the process of trying to achieve cultural diversity.

Students prefer to go to the United States and Europe, as universities in these regions have students from all over the world. When such judgments are made, students are automatically placed on a low base, which is also reflected in their college MBA journey. “The admission process for admission to the MBA should not change and should be standardized,” Jaiswal says.

He adds that special admission criteria can be offered for doctoral and executive programmes, the focus should be on getting foreign professors, and students will follow suit. The institute has no plans to accept international students through excess seats any time soon.