IIM Ahmedabad introduces reservations for PhD admission

For the first time ever, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad has introduced quotas for admissions to its PhD programmes.

This move aims to enable candidates from reserved categories, including Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and persons with disabilities, to apply for the Doctoral Programme in Management (or Fellow Programme in Management) at India's leading business school.

Reservations

While IIM Ahmedabad is yet to disclose details on how the quota system will be implemented, the online announcement indicated that "Government of India guidelines for reservation are followed during admissions".

Also, according to the advertisement, candidates from reserved categories will be granted a 5 percentage point relaxation in the minimum degree marks required for eligibility.

The notice says, "For candidates belonging to reserved categories – Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST)/Persons with Disabilities (PwD)/Non-creamy Other Backward Classes (NC-OBC)/Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) – the minimum degree marks requirement for eligibility as part of the basic criteria will be relaxed by 5 percentage points."

Move after HC plea

More importantly, the decision to introduce quotas follows a 2021 Gujarat High Court petition, seeking the enforcement of reservations for SC, ST, and OBC candidates in IIM Ahmedabad’s PhD programme.

The Global IIM Alumni Network, an association of IIM alumni, had filed the public interest litigation (PIL), arguing that while IIM Ahmedabad is governed and funded by the Union Ministry of Education, it was violating the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, in its admission process for the PhD programme.

IIM-A's rebuttal

Responding to this, IIM Ahmedabad argued in an affidavit that implementing reservations in the PhD course could have unintended consequences and potentially create inequities for other deserving and meritorious students. The B-School issued a statement saying, "It is in the broader interest not to introduce reservation policies."

However, in October 2023, the institute informed the Gujarat High Court that it was prepared to implement reservations for SC, ST, and OBC candidates in its PhD programme in due course.

It is worth noting that IIM Ahmedabad’s doctoral programme, which commenced in 1971, previously had no quotas for reserved categories.