Orientation course at IIMs may stretch longer

The Supreme Court's decision to implement the 27 per cent reservation quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will have another fallout besides putting pressure on the infrastructure and bringing financial woes to the fore.

The duration of the 'preparatory programme', for students who are weak in certain areas, held by the IIMs each year before the batch begins, could get longer this year and the number of students selected is also expected to go up significantly.

Each year, the interview panel comprising senior faculty members from the IIMs identify a small number of students from the final list of selected candidates who need coaching in certain subject areas of Mathematics, English and verbal communication.

With the OBC quota coming into play, IIM faculty members are expecting the cut-offs for the OBC students to be lower than the cut-offs for the general category students, leading to more students requiring pre-coaching.

Sources at IIM Lucknow have said that the cut-off percentile for each section for general category students is 85, for SCs is 55 , STs is 50 and OBCs is 75. The institute will organise its preparatory course for two weeks this year.

IIM Bangalore has a percentile cut-off in each section of 88 for general students, around 45-50 for the SC/ST category and for OBC candidates it is expected to be around 70.

Usually non-engineering students are introduced to mathematical concepts through the programme. Verbal communication skills are also enhanced. The preparatory programme does not take into account a student's economic or social background.

"However, it so happens that a large number of these students are from the SC/ST background," said an IIM faculty.

IIM Indore, which usually holds a five-day preparatory programme for students, is set to increase the duration of the programme to two weeks.

An official from the institute said one of the reasons why the move was being considered was because of the expected lowering of cut-offs for OBC candidates.

At IIM Ahmedabad, the preparatory programme will be for three weeks. Last year the institute had conducted the programme for two weeks.

The number of students attending the programme are around 50 each year and a source said that the number could increase this year.

While the human resource development ministry has already notified the implementation of OBC quota in higher educational institutions, the IIMs say that they have not received the official communication yet.

The institutes say that once they receive the notification, they will implement the quota in phases. IIM Ahmedabad will take up 6 per cent OBC expansion this year, IIM Bangalore will take up 7 per cent, IIM Calcutta will take up 3 per cent, IIM Indore will take up 4 per cent, while IIM Lucknow will take up 8 per cent.