IIM-A writes to govt, opposes PhD criteria

Justifying his opposition to the CGPA criterion, IIM-A director Erol D’Souza said that this is inconsistent with the practice followed by institutes before the new IIM Act kicked in.

The HRD Ministry wrote to all 20 business schools last month permitting them to admit students with a four-year bachelor’s degree directly into the PhD programme.

The Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has opposed the eligibility criteria laid down by the government for admission to the doctoral programme offered by the IIMs.

The HRD Ministry wrote to all 20 business schools last month permitting them to admit students with a four-year bachelor’s degree directly into the PhD programme. The duration of the doctoral course for such candidates is fixed at four years and only those with a minimum of eight CGPA or equivalent are eligible to apply.

In case of the three-year doctoral programme, the ministry has clarified that applicants should either have a master’s degree or a two-year PG diploma or a professional qualification such as CA/ICWA/CS with B.Com.

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IIM-A director Erol D’Souza has objected to the above criteria, especially the requirement for two-year diploma and a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of eight for applicants with an engineering background.

Speaking to The Indian Express, D’Souza confirmed that he has written to the higher education secretary, R Subrahmanyam, requested him latter to amend the government notification. Justifying his opposition to the CGPA criterion, he said that this is inconsistent with the practice followed by institutes before the new IIM Act kicked in.

“If we look at our admission record (for the doctoral programme) from the past decade, almost half of our students are engineers and roughly 60 per cent of them have had a CGPA of less than eight. The reason we don’t focus only on CGPA is because we also ask for a statement of purpose and conduct an hour-long personal interview. So it’s a holistic assessment of which CGPA is just one of the things we consider,” he said.

“As per the latest notification, none of those who qualified for the doctoral programme in the past would get admission today. Many of them are currently teaching in the IIMs. So with this notification, you are basically saying that those guys are worthless,” D’Souza added.

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The director, in his letter, has also objected to the government not including the one-year PG diploma (executive programme) offered by the IIMs in the eligibility criteria. IIM-A, in the past, has admitted candidates with a one-year PG diploma to their doctoral programme. “Why change what has worked for us in the past?” he asked.

The government’s notification on the eligibility criteria for admission to the PhD programme was brought out in response to clarifications sought by some IIMs, who are now empowered to award PhD degrees instead of offering the Fellow Programme in Management (FPM).

Ritika Chopra

Ritika Chopra, an award-winning journalist with over 17 years of experience, serves as the Chief of the National Bureau (Govt) and National Education Editor at The Indian Express in New Delhi. In her current role, she oversees the newspaper's coverage of government policies and education. Ritika closely tracks the Union Government, focusing on the politically sensitive Election Commission of India and the Education Ministry, and has authored investigative stories that have prompted government responses. Ritika joined The Indian Express in 2015. Previously, she was part of the political bureau at The Economic Times, India’s largest financial daily. Her journalism career began in Kolkata, her birthplace, with the Hindustan Times in 2006 as an intern, before moving to Delhi in 2007. Since then, she has been reporting from the capital on politics, education, social sectors, and the Election Commission of India. ... Read More