Disregarding appeals for implementing reservation quotas, other IIMs have issued admission notices not in compliance with the law.
IIM Bangalore. Credit: iimb.ac.in
The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore will now implement government-mandated reservation quota for SC/ST/OBC candidates in its admission to the Fellow Programme in Management (FPM) course for the academic year 2018-19.
Welcoming this move, Global IIM Alumni Network, in a statement said:
This comes as a pleasant surprise after the Global IIM Alumni Network had recently called on all the IIMs to implement reservation in their respective FPM programs as one of the measures to deal with the appalling diversity deficit at both doctoral and faculty levels at all the IIMs. While commending the leadership at IIM Bangalore to be the first to comply with these statutory measures, we urge them to go beyond the letter of the provisions and take further steps to realize them in their spirit. These can include but may not be limited to putting in place an effective outreach initiative to publicize the admissions in all major institutions across the country, putting in place financial aid for those students who may have educational loan prohibiting them from pursuing a long-duration doctoral course and steps to foster an inclusive and welcoming academic environment for students from marginalized communities.
Also read: Despite Internal and External Pressure, IIM Ahmedabad Is Ignoring Its Social Diversity Problem
The Alumni Network expressed disappointment that IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta and IIM Kozhikode have disregarded several appeals to introduce reservation quotas and have continued to have admission policies at variance with the law. The statement said:
We implore the leadership at these institutions to withdraw the existing notices and reissue them with reservation provisions as mandated by law.
We would also urge other IIMs including IIM Lucknow and IIM Indore, which will be issuing admission notices for their doctoral programmes in the next few months, to follow the example of IIM Bangalore in taking the first step towards inclusion by implementing statutory reservations in the admission processes.
Also read: IIMs Have a Dismal Diversity Record – and the New Bill Isn’t Going to Fix That
All IIMs are established under the same act and are mandated to follow the laws including the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006. But currently, the institutes follow the reservation policy in its flagship PGP programme (MBA) and not in the executive MBA and FPM programmes or for filling faculty positions.
Stepping up pressure for compliance, the Global IIM Alumni association has also written a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking their intervention to ensure implementation of reservation quotas across all IIM institutes in the FPM programme as well as in faculty intake. To buttress their plea, they have highlighted the acute lack of diversity in research and teaching positions across all campuses.
Recently published data reveals that there are only two SC and 13 OBC members amongst 512 faculty members in all of ten IIMs. Even more glaring is the absence of a single ST faculty member. The data also shows the top four IIMs – in Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bangalore and Lucknow – have 24 SC/St/OBC students out of a total of 388 students enrolled in the FPM doctoral programme.
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