IIMs sets new admission date

Mou Chakraborty and Rathin Das
Kolkata /Ahmedabad, April 12, 2007

THE SIX IIMs will delay the announcement of their admission lists, but not indefinitely. The list, initially due on Thursday, will be announced on April 21 and made on the basis of the IIMs’ capacities last year.
Because of the Supreme Court stay on reservations for OBCs, the HRD ministry had advised the IIMs to defer the process until further notice. The IIMs, however, decided against an indefinite delay as it would affect intake.
“Students cannot keep waiting. If we delayed admission further, we would have lost good students and it would have caused hassles for the students, too. We have urged the ministry to take this into consideration and take a decision before April 21,” IIM-Calcutta director Ashish Bhattacharya said.
Other than the IIMs, 81 institutes admit students from the CAT merit list and these will announce their lists around April 16, not being bound by the court stay or the government directive. In view of the uncertainty, many students would go to the other 81 institutes even if they could have made it to an IIM, the director said. Even after the IIM lists are out, very few of these bright students would leave their institutes because they would have already paid non-refundable admission fees.
The six directors had a teleconference following the ministry directive and decided unanimously not to defer the process beyond April 21 and to go ahead with the admissions as per last year’s intake capacities. “This decision has been taken to protect the interest of the student community,” IIM-Ahmedabad director Bakul Dholakia said.
The IIM-Calcutta director explained, “We are not trying to defy the government. If the government asks us not to publish the lists even on April 21, we shall do so.”
IIM-Bangalore director Prakash Apte will write to the HRD ministry explaining the decision not to delay the admission process beyond April 21. The admission process takes around three weeks and another three weeks is required for a programme to prepare weaker students.
The total capacity for the regular two-year PGP course in the six IIMs put together is 1450. They had planned an expansion of nearly 150 seats, but the list for these will not be announced on April 21 if no further directive comes till then.
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