IIMs would now woo arts graduates

The IIMs whose classrooms have long been monopolised by engineering and science graduates, is going for an image makeover. The country’s premier management institutes want to sprinkle the campus with a smatter of humanities and arts students.

The step is aimed at lending diversity to the campuses. The change is also being dictated by industry needs.

While IIM- Lucknow is giving weightage to “ non- engineering and non- science” students from this year, the IIMs for the past few years have been including Class X, XII and graduation scores along with the CAT scores to shortlist candidates for admission.

“ Eighty- five per cent of our students are from engineering background. Now, we want to have a diverse set of students on our campus from humanities and arts streams. From this year, we are giving weightage to students from ‘ non- engineering and non- science’ streams,” Himanshu Rai, chairman of CAT’s admission committee and faculty at IIM- Lucknow, said.

“ It will not only ensure a more diverse campus but industry too seems to be also looking out for students from diverse backgrounds.” IIM- Ahmedabad director S. K. Barua agreed.

“ When we base our admission not on a single criteria (CAT scores) but a multiple range of criteria, which includes academic background, school and college scores and work experience, we are ensuring that students of different calibre as well as diverse social backgrounds make it to the institute.” One of the reasons that prompted the IIMs to include past academic performance of students as one of the parameters for short- listing students was that students with high scores in school and college level were usually those that were consistently better performers academically.