Contrary to reports, The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Trichy has not failed to fill up its quota of seats. On the contrary, it has admitted students well beyond its scheduled intake. The institute, which is in its first year of operations had an earlier sanction for just 60 students. However, during admission, the institute admitted 84 students instead, making it one of the only IIMs to take in such a huge number in its first year.

When asked how the sanction came about overnight, dean of Academics Prof V Gopal replied that as long as there was infrastructure in place for more students, it was not a problem getting higher intake approved. More students meant more fees and lesser dependence on the government grant. So what was supposed to be one class of 60 students, has today turned out to be two sections of 41 and 43 students each. One could easily say that IIM Trichy actually fell short by 36 students for doubling its actual sanctioned quota of 60 students! Prof Gopal, who also teaches Finance and Accounting said that since a huge pool of good students had applied, the institute decided to take a larger number.

Officials at IIM Trichy said that they had not expected many students to apply and join as well. At first, since the initial intake was 60 students, arrangements were made with that number in mind, be it for classrooms, hostel rooms or the canteen facilities, but with the increase, capacity was given an overnight push. “Only after we were ready with the infrastructure that we decided to go ahead with the additional number of students,” assured Prof Gopal. Thankfully, IIM Trichy which functions from the National Institute of Technology campus has had much of its infrastructure problems sorted out because of its location. Not only are some of the hostel premises shared but the sporting arenas, some canteens and the mess in some cases is also shared with NIT students. In fact, IIM Trichy functions from what was originally the library building of NIT.

As far as forced diversity goes, IIM Trichy, like some of the other IIMs is going to adopt the ‘forced diversity’ principle from next year for non-engineers and women candidates. While female candidates will get a boost of 5%, those from non-engineering backgrounds will also be given a lift-up. IIM Trichy has placed arts and medicine students on the same level for criteria application. Prof Gopal is quick to reason out, “When firms in US state that they are equal opportunity employers, they are also talking about forced diversity. If you are going out of your way to get a certain set of people, you are in a way forcing the set of people.”

With regard to faculty too, IIM Trichy is one of the firsts. It is probably the only new IIM that has started with a faculty strength of 10, expected to go to 14 in the next 2 months. And that is the reason IIM Trichy professors think that so many students applied. “Faculty was probably the main reason why we took the initiative to increase the students numbers. Ten faculty is a good enough number to start with, be it 60 students or 84,” answers Prof Gopal.