Girls’ strength reaches 100 at IIM-B

IIM, Bangalore, has attained a record of a special kind. For the first time in the history of the institute, 100 women have managed to get admission in the 2012-2014 batch.

IIM, Bangalore, has attained a record of a special kind. For the first time in the history of the institute, 100 women have managed to get admission in the 2012-2014 batch.

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Although the fairer sex constitutes only 26% of the total class strength of 377, this is a commendable achievement because the institute had been striving to improve its gender ratio for the last three years.

“Internationally, the percentage of women in good management schools is 40-50%. We are still way behind. But this is a small step and we will strive to improve it gradually,” Prof M Jayadev, Admission Chairman, told Hindustan Times.

Maintaining that no compromise had been made on merit, Jaydev said: "Besides the CAT score, weightage was also given to academic consistency and experience. When we decided on a comprehensive score, we took into account the overall potential of a candidate. Girls have always been academically consistent.”

Observing that the application of each candidate was scrutinised thoroughly, he said: “During interviews, we looked for positive personality characteristics and intelligence.”

Describing this as a great step towards improving gender balance, an alumni of IIM Bangalore said: "When I was studying, there were around 10-15 girls on the campus. I am very sure the increase in the number of girls will bring more diversity on the campus.”

While IIM Ahmedabad has this year admitted 64 students (16.8%) 51 girls (11%) have got admission in the two-year programme of IIM Calcutta.