The fog on admission criteria and process for 6 proposed new IIMs announced in the budget 2014 has not been cleared either by mentor IIMs or by Ministry of HRD which has not yet included the names of proposed IIMs in the list of IIMs on its site.
The confusion and panic among the CAT 2014 high percentilers is so high that they have begun raising the query whether the proposed IIMs would at all commence their academic session in 2015 or the budget announcement will simply wash away like the foundation stone of a bridge which is never constructed. MBA aspirants seeking admission in one of these proposed IIMs are now so much perturbed that they have given up the hope of commencement of operations of any of 6 proposed new IIMs.
The Finance Minister announced the establishment of 6 proposed new IIMs in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Punjab in the budget speech of 2014 and reiterated IIM Andhra in Budget 2015. The Minister of HRD Govt of India also quickly laid foundation stone of IIM Andhra at Visakhapatnam and declared that all the 6 proposed IIMs would begin classes in the academic session 2015-16.
But till date no clarity on intake, shortlsiting criteria, admission process has been clarified. By not revealing the key facts, MHRD has strengthened further the doubt among the test takers and other stake holders about its intention to commence the operations of 6 proposed IIMs in 2015.
CAT 2014 high percentilers in dilemma
All the 13 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) declared their admission policy 2015 in public domain well in advance and even before the CAT 2014 result was declared. The CAT 2014 score cut off-sectional as well as overall percentile; shortlisting criteria; components of Personal Interview (PI) round and weightage to academic profile, work experience everything is posted on the sites of these IIMs.
Registration for the admission in proposed 6 IIMs supposed to commence the operation in academic session 2015-16, was done with the registration and application form of CAT 2014 way back in August 2014. Ministry of HRD in consultation with older IIMs also decided on the mentorship of these proposed 6 new IIMs. IIM Bangalore will mentor the IIM in Andhra Pradesh; IIM Calcutta will mentor IIM in Odisha; IIM Indore will mentor the IIM in Bihar; IIM Lucknow is to mentor the IIM in Himachal Pradesh; IIM Ahmadebad will mentor the IIM in Maharashtra and IIM Kozhikode will mentor the IIM in Punjab.
The question still remains where the respective proposed IIMs exist as there is no information about them and who can expect to get admission in their flagship programmes in the year 2015.
MHRD & Mentor IIM: Fail to spread awareness
There is no awareness or specific information either from the mentor IIM or MHRD in regard to the proposed 6 new IIMs whose campuses of operation have not yet been decided. The tug of war between State and Central Government is simply making a fun of these proposed IIMs and is playing with the future of MBA aspirants who opted for registration and admission to these IIMs with the registration process of CAT 2014.
There is nothing regarding the intake, shortlisting criteria and PI round for admission to these proposed IIMs that is available on the site of MHRD or mentor IIMs. The website of Ministry of HRD does not even mention the names of the proposed IIMs not to say about their very existence. CAT 2014 test takers are in a dilemma and are clueless on all the above issues. CAT Centre 2014 is silent on it and is directing the students to raise such queries with IIM Indore that again is unable to respond.
No Logo; No website
Where would you find IIM Bihar; Himachal; Punjab; Odisha; Maharashtra; Andhra, if you try to search on Google about their existence? At the most you will find some information about these proposed 6 IIMs on media sites like TOI, MBAUniverse.com, India Today among few others. But neither any official information nor any logo of any of the proposed IIMs is available anywhere.
Unless the name of the town of the IIM is finally decided, its website may not be finalized as every IIM is known by its city of existence and not by its state. We never address IIM Ahmedabad by its state like IIM Gujarat. Obviously the proposed 6 new IIMs may not be called IIM Punjab, IIM Bihar, IIM Himachal, IIM Odisha, IIM Maharashtra, IIM Andhra Pradesh.
Unwarranted delay
The location of 2 out of proposed 6 new IIMs has been decided by MHRD in consultation with the State Government and mentor IIMs but still the MHRD is refraining from placing the information in public domain for no apparent reason.
The decision to locate IIM Maharashtra in Nagpur and IIM Andhra Pradesh in Visakhapatnam was taken few months back. Nothing after that has been done. At least the process of admission and information about the programme could be placed on MHRD site, mentor IIM site for these 2 IIMs so that admission seekers to them could take timely decision. But moving on its sluggish pace MHRD has found it convenient to forget about these IIMs and the mentor IIMs have thought it proper to complete their own admission process instead of taking care of these babies who are yet to be born.
The slow process may not allow these proposed 6 new IIMs to take shape in academic session 2015-16. Even if at the last moment good sense prevails, these proposed IIMs may not be able to provide good learning experience in the first year unless the entire curriculum and pedagogy is managed by the mentor IIM with its faculty.
What actually is going on in setting up these IIMs is best known either to MHRD or the mentor IIMs who think that hiding information and not making the updates transparent to the aspirants are some good steps they are taking. Neither MHRD nor the mentor IIM is ready to make the process public which means either there is nothing to share or the proposed IIMs may not commence operation in 2015 as committed by Ministry of HRD, putting a big question mark on the efficiency of Government on promoting quality management education to achieve its goal of ‘Make in India’
300 to lose admission opportunity
In the beginning an IIM might go for an intake of 50-60 candidates but the decision on intake is not yet taken nor made public. It is expected at least 50 candidates will be offered admission to each of the 6 IIMs, making it a total of 300 entrants.
If these proposed IIMs do not take off in 2015, the future prospects of these candidates will be at stake. MHRD and mentor IIMs should promptly come out with all the details to defuse the panic situation among the MBA aspirants.
No campus: Conduct classes at mentor IIMs
There is no harm to conduct the classes in the first year of MBA programme of these proposed IIMs at the campus of mentor IIMs in case the decision on campus and location is delayed any further. MHRD in consultation with mentor IIMs should come out promptly with such suitable notification for the benefit of CAT 2014 high percentilers.
The proposal will enable the students of batch 2015-17 getting admission in 6 proposed new IIMs to have the opportunity of getting taught with the fresher batch at the mentor IIM. It will add value to the course also and could prove to be a rare opportunity for CAT 2014 takers who despite scoring less would be taught alongwith the students of IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode at least in the first semester of the academic session 2015-16.
MHRD and mentor IIMs need to clear the stage of indecision as it may adversely affect the prospective students who have scored the desired percentile and now wish to pursue MBA from one of the IIMs the very existence of whom is still not known.
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on proposed New IIMs
