Dear Students,
LAST WEEK WE ASKED:
Do you think it is a good move to grant grace marks to girl students who wish to join IIMs?
BEST RESPONSE
An educational institution of high repute is known for its quality of students among the major factors. Creating a bias on gender, puts a question on the premise held. In the present scenario education to a student has been delivered till the graduation level, and she has got enough environmental support to develop her acumen to face CAT and deliver favourably. At such a juncture, any favouritism would undermine the confidence of the industry towards any girl student from the institute. At personal level, she herself would rather keep her credibility than losing it on a few grace marks.
- Kritika Swarup, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D).
OTHER RESPONSES
Protection of the girl-child socially is another factor all together, but economically and professionally, it is the world of equality, where both girls and boys are competing at the same level. I don't think that there is a necessity at all to grant grace marks to girls especially. Girls are no longer lagging behind, they are heading at shoulder level with the boys. I think the competition, in any field whatsoever, should encourage equality rather than blindly awarding grace marks to girls. Also, admission into the IIMs is based on one's academic capability and NOT one's gender.
- Ayesha Khan, Amity Business School, Noida
Today's corporate world needs a healthy heterogeneous mix of gender for the organisational effectiveness, as diversity in business is imperative. Equal opportunity should be taken care right from the grass roots level of managers who were traditionally part of male dominated pie. The future managers should be able to emphasise and learn working with different demographic changes that they face in their day to day life and excel in public relations within a limited time frame. Breaking the platitude in the top B-schools, in this direction, is definitely the call for the day, which should be appreciated.
- Lavanya Polumatla, Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.
Do classroom spaces really need to care about gender balance or award admission only to those who 'deserve' it? Giving rise to the crop of gender bias not only dilutes the integrity of exam but the quality of tomorrow's leaders as well. Highlighting the inability of girl candidates for not being able to secure seats on their own puts IIMs thinking in grey shade. This unjustified discrimination over and above existing reservation will cause the value of merit to reach an all time low. After all, it's not about putting the most diverse but 'the best' resources available in place.
- Vijay Anand, Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi.
IIMs have decided to award marks for 'gender' diversity factors. Students in this country were already bleeding under the skin due to reservation. It seems this country is obsessed with providing new shortcuts under the garb of tag 'disadvantaged'. B-schools in the name of diversity are toying with meritocracy. If the government really wants to do something for upliftment of girls, they must provide them with opportunities. The admission criteria to the so called hallowed institutes like IIMs and IITs must be purely on the basis of merit.
- Sanjay Kumar, Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur.
With the aim to increase gender diversity in the management institutes, IIMs have decided to grant grace marks to female candidates but this I believe will not only dilute the brand of CAT but also refrain deserving students from entering into these prestigious institutes. It might be a viable solution in a short run but over a period of time it will only create dissent among aspirants. Instead if the weightage of CAT score might have been decreased and more preference is given to relevant work experience, much better and disparate people enter into IIMs.
- Rajeev Upadhyay, National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai.
In a move to re-balance the gender scales in office spaces, all the leading Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have decided to offer grace marks to girl candidates who apply for IIMs. This move indicates that girl candidates aren't capable of securing a seat in IIMs on their own and they need 'grace' marks to secure a seat. This seems inappropriate as it questions the ability of girl students. Instead of trying to improve gender balance the management schools should try to offer seats to those who really deserve it.
- Amit Kumar, Amity Business School, Noida.
In prestigious institutes like IIMs, the subject of reservation should not take the toll on the admission of meritorious students to the institute be it the reservation for students belonging to backward castes or be it the application is from a female candidate. In the name of reserving seats for them at institutes, it would only mean belittling meritorious candidates who can even in the absence of such reservations climb up the ladder of success. Earlier it was reservation and quota for students pertaining to backward caste/tribe and now we have a new bug in the name of reservation for women candidates.
- A Bhuvana Bhimaiah, Alagappa University, Bangalore.
The world believes that women are weaker of the two sexes and doubts their capabilities. Various 'support systems' highlight females' inferiority in the male-dominated society. Giving 'grace marks' strengthens the wrong belief that girls do well only if supported. Girls possess equal intelligence and calibre as their male counterparts do. Therefore, girls can join IIMs in fairly large numbers owing to their hardwork. Hence this 'good move' aimed at benefitting the lot would rather be questioning their abilities and prove an evidence that girls need protection at every level.
- Nehal Sharma, Brightlands School, Dehradun
The gender of a candidate, subservient to his/her actions, should not hinder the process of getting into the long cherished IIMs. Awarding grace marks to female candidates will only lead to the incredible devaluing of the country’s premier institute. Instead more wiser step to induce female candidates into the gender imbalanced institutes (IIMs) should be introduced which would include waiving application fees and offering special scholarship to the female students that will reduce the burden of paying hefty fees to the institutes.
- Dipika Sahoo, College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar.
It is a demotivating step to grant grace marks to girl students as it makes a wrong perception that girls are not capable enough to join IIMs. It creates gender differentiation in today's globalisation period where both men and women needs equal parameters for making better career in corporate sector.
- Heena Chhabaria, Idea Institute Of Management and Technology, Ahmedabad.
Though there is exigency to have gender balance at the IIMs, the same should not be through grace marks as many of donee will be unworthy candidate. This is deplorable to the maximal as this move is biased against merit and is reservation in virtual form. This will unfavorably affect academic standard as many meritorious candidate will not be able to compete on level playing field. What IIMs can do is mould selection criteria like GMAT. This will automatically empower them to admit sundry students without favoring one group over others
- Shri Ram Swaroop Memorial College Of Engineering And Management (SRMCEM), Lucknow.
The IIM strata is equipped with analytics who knows how to bring about alternatives even in the doomsday of market variations. The move will definitely shrink the number of such intakes and so the standards of these legendary B-schools will further deteriorate. The 50 per cent reservation already slashes 50 per cent chances of meritorious students. Now the move to bring about equality in the gender game will bring more disparities in the academic status and in faith of monetary pulsations.
- Nandish Agarwal, Galgotias College of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida.
There has been a lot of gender disparity for females they always have been repressed; now time has come to make them at par with the other half of society, so a good step taken by IIMs to promote gender diversity in a strange correction to break the monotony and to have a More Diverse Set of Students. They have done well to tailor their admissions policy towards that goal. It’s sure a transition period for India and is essentially a right step in right direction to give edge to women.
- Priyank Jaiswal, Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai.
The move is welcome, because women form the significant 'better half' of the consumption world. And in a country like India, where 3/4th of all families are nuclear families, they play an even more pivotal role in the household buying decision-making. Though only 1 in 10 women work in the corporate world and nine per cent are profitably employed. But as the fact indicates Indian women are far more ambitious than their counterparts in BRIC countries.
- Ashu Malik, Balaji Institute of Management and Human Resource Development (BIMHRD), Pune.
The move to offer grace marks is a desperate step to ramp up the strength of girls in IIMs. This ossifying mindset moves the state of things into regression where we still have reservations and doubts on the abilities of girls to comprehensively compete with boys. These are temporary fixes which do not address the structural causes for the lopsided boys-girls ratio at IIMs.
- Akshay Chadha, NSIT, Delhi.
The intention of granting grace marks to girl students who wish to join IIMs is to increase the diversity in the classrooms. A number of opportunities have opened up for women as the corporate world realises the value of communication and multitasking. Thus, in terms of career opportunities, women at top Indian B-schools do not face any restrictions. In fact, a number of companies run 'equal opportunity' programs and encourage hiring of women in their organisations.
- Shipra Gosain, Amity Business School, Noida.
Re-balancing the gender ratio of male and female in IIMs is a correct step to be followed but not on the bases of grace marks but on the merit link. The grace method will increase female entry level in IIMs but this will lead to unfairness to other male students. This step will lead to make reservations for women students who will snatch the deserving male students chances to get seats in IIMs. Today the India is seeing women entrepreneurs who are the big role players for girl student to make their name in business world. But have they become successful on their merit link or from getting grace marks.
- Manav Badhwar, Amity Business School, Noida.
Girls are competing in every field with boys.The women folks who are really passionate about joining IIMs are strong enough and intelligent enough to compete with boys. Still, if you give some grace marks, then there will be a trade-off between the people who really have scored above the cut-off marks and you have to omit those people. So there will a compromise on the quality of the intakes to make a balance between them.
- Suvadro Chakraborty, Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore.
Women are considered to be toppers in almost all education institution. Today's women demand challenge and show potential of handling difficult tasks simultaneously. Giving grace marks will be a backward moving step but providing free textbooks, good library services, Internet, leadership and positive thinking seminar at subsidised rates will allow the girls to enter IIMs and a bright future. Nonetheless if a (poor) girl is hard working and yet weak in studies she could be provided extra coaching at subsidized rates, but the standard of passing the test should not be reduced as it will lead to confusion.
- Merwin D'souza, Loyola College, Chennai.
No, I don't think it should be done because today the time is of tough competition and if this has been done then competition will come completely in favor of girls. Already reservation is ruining our country. This step will be favoring the reservations only. There is no difference between a girl's mental ability and a boy's mental ability; it just needs efforts to reach success. And if girls will make efforts, no one can stop them from brightening their future in IIMs.
- Ankur Khandelwal, Amity Business School, Noida.
It's not a good move to grant grace marks to girl students who wish to join IIMs. One cannot gauge skills on the basis of gender. If the institutes provide grace mark to girl students it would amount to injustice for male candidates. This would also defeat all efforts to bring in male-female equality. The move also tends to prove that girls are not capable as boys. For IIMs this might also result in getting students who are less capable.
- Swati Thakkar, LJ Institute of Management Studies, Ahmedabad.
Millions harbour the dream to be a part of these enigmatic talent nurturing gospels of education. Granting grace marks to girl students will not be a good move as those students will feel cheated who burn the midnight oil, but will be denied admission because their seats will be given to girls. It’s not only about entering the arena but it’s also about the survival. Nowadays opportunities and facilities galore for both boys and girls so no undue favors to anyone.
- Rahul Malik, Amity Business School, Noida.
The implicit assumption in this move is the divide between boys and girls' educational calibre. I feel that today the competition and calibre is almost equal between boys and girls. This proof lies in the competitive exams where a steady increase of the success rate of girls vis-a-vis the boys is noticed. Hence, there is in fact no need for such an initiative only as I believe without grace marks also, fairly large number of girls will be able to secure a berth in the IIMs.
- Sabyasachi Dasgupta, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA).
Your responses should reach us at edu@businessstandard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.
THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:
Do you think extending placement process by IIMs is a good move? Why? =
