In a meeting held between the IIM directors and the higher education secretary this week, the leading B-school of India have talked about the possibility of awarding Master’s degree for the one-year postgraduate course for executives. The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have collectively urged the government to rethink its position on the duration of the management degree program.
“It’s not an ‘us versus them’ situation. We have sensitized the ministry about what the IIMs want and we’re hoping they will reconsider their stand,” said an IIM director.
In the meeting, the IIMs also urged the ministry to reconsider the entry criteria laid down by the government for the doctoral program offered by them.
The business schools have requested the government to reconsider the requirement of a Cumulative Grade Points Average (CGPA) of 8 and change it to 6CGPA for direct entry candidates with four-year degree or B.Tech. The institutes also want that they should be allowed to admit candidates even with a one-year postgraduate diploma as opposed to the two-year diploma prescribed by the government.
The HRD Ministry had written to all 20 business schools in October clarifying that they can 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.