IIM-A to tap past GMAT toppers to increase diversity at campus

Also introduces 40 supernumerary seats for foreign passport holders in its admission process

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, (IIM-A) is trying its best to bring more citizenship diversity in its classrooms by admitting foreign students.

It has introduced supernumerary seats for foreign nationals from the 2015-16 batch. The B-school is now reaching out to past GMAT applicants in several nations like Singapore, Nigeria, Kenya, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to market itself as an ideal management education destination.

IIM-A has introduced a set of 40 supernumerary seats for foreign passport holders in its flagship post graduate programme in management over and above the existing batch size of around 430. While the first-year PGP batch of 2015-17 has no foreign passport holders under the supernumerary system, the institute has begun receiving enquiries from several countries.

"We are seeing some traction among foreign passport holders and enquiries are coming in. However, the institute recognises the need to market itself in other countries if we need to fill up the supernumerary seats," said sources close to the development.

An emailed query to the institute remained unanswered. The institute, according to sources, is approaching candidates from these countries and organising meetings. The meetings include a presentation on the institute as well as the overall scenario of studying in India.

"We are realistic that foreign candidates may not be aware of IIM-A. Also, not all countries may have a management education preference and even if they have we understand there are other global options," the sources added.

Unlike its post graduate programme for executives where the GMAT score cut-off is around 700, the institute has set a cut-off of around 650 for the supernumerary seats. However, the institute is ensuring the foreign passport holders being admitted through the supernumerary seats are of a quality at par with the CAT candidates being admitted for the PGP.

Meanwhile, sources said the institute hoped efforts of reaching out to past scorers would yield benefits from the next academic year.