Hundreds of students, who get admitted to the two-year post graduate programme (PGP) at many Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) this year, will have the stamp of approval from alumni of the respective institutes.
For instance, at IIM Bangalore (IIM-B), over 100 alumni members were learnt to be a part of the interview panel this year for admissions.
The institute had shortlisted 1,548 candidates for interviews this year for its batch of 375 students.
The alumni had to have a minimum seven years of work experience, and be residents of cities where the interviews were scheduled besides having the ability to devote an entire day for the effort. The response, according to Rakesh Godhwani, head of the IIM-B alumni association, was “overwhelming”.
Similarly, IIM Kozhikode (IIM-K), for the first time, had its alumni members on board to conduct admissions for the batch of PGP 2010-12. “We thought of reflecting the experience and perception of the industry through the alumni, who are practitioners and could actually give us a perspective on the industry while conducting the admissions. As teachers, we are usually judgmental and have certain experience in the process but the inclusion of alumni in the admission process added another dimension,” says Anandakuttan Unnithan, admissions chairperson at IIM-K.
He adds that the alumni also fit in with the corporate culture and their quality of work experience was found to be useful in helping them choose the right candidates for the institute. Around 15 alumni were part of the interview panels to interview 1,900 students.
Institutes say the move helps ease the load on faculty members. On an average, admission interviews take around 100 hours of faculty time every year which may also require them to travel to interview centres in other cities. Faculty members feel that due to administration work, their teaching often takes a backseat. The initiative helps institutes bring in qualified professionals who could help ease the work pressure and also bring an academia-industry balance into the interview panel.
One of the first institutes to have alumni as part of its admissions was IIM Calcutta (IIM-C). “We have been having alumni members on our admission panel for quite a few years now. Alumni members give a different perspective in selection of students. Through their industry experience, they are able to give insights on which candidates have the makings of good managers a few years down the road,” says Anshuman Shrivastava, alumni secretary at IIM-C.
At IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A), however, the faculty preferred to interview the aspiring candidates themselves, in spite of the huge increase in the number of candidates this year. “The candidates were interviewed by our faculty only. We are aware that other IIMs have included alumni on board to conduct admissions but we have not done that,” said Diptesh Ghosh, admission chairperson at IIM-A.
Meanwhile, IIM-B is yet to take a call on whether involvement of alumni will become a standard part of the process from next year. "This was an experiment we conducted. We will analyse how it went and decide on it," says Subhashish Gupta, chairperson of admissions for IIM-B.
Some faculty members had also been part of the interview panels of the institute's ePGP (one year executive management programme) last year but the initiative was undertaken on a more formal scale for the first time with the PGP batch.
