The ongoing pandemic has thrown the whole education department into turmoil. All the students are left deserted on the island of courses and pending studies. And similarly, all the institutions are trying their best to deal with the situation in the most convenient way possible without compromising the safety norms.

Most of the institutions are opting for online studies while others are on their way to do so. Due to the uncertain nature of the outbreak, no firm decisions are being taken, and all the steps taken are temporary, which can change according to the direction this notorious pandemic takes.

Same is the condition with the IIMs. Due to coronavirus, most IIMs have decided to push back their academic sessions to August, instead of June when those usually begin

Online recruitment the way forward

Most of the institutes opted for the digital path for recruiting their students. While IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Ahmedabad, and IIM-Raipur completed their admission process before the lockdown, others like, Sambalpur, Calcutta, Indore, IIM Kozhikode, Lucknow and Jammu were not that quick and hence got stuck with the sudden lockdown.

According to the former institutes which were successful in recruiting through digital mediums were quite satisfied with the results and expect them to become standard norms in the future. This choice is also feasible due to the huge cost of travels and stays that the students have to bear during the recruiting process, which would not be required in case of online conferences.

Different criteria adopted by different institutes

The recruitment process included the shortlisting of students with respect to the previous academic records, work experience, diversity of background, etc. Finally, the final shortlist was prepared on the basis of the written proficiency test known as WAT.

However, institutes like IIM Indore and Calcutta did not go with the WAT score. And IIM Sambalpur conducted the test online with preventive measures to stop unnecessary help.

IIM-Indore did not consider the weightage of the WAT component this year in order to maintain the fairness and uniformity of the admission process for all the involved candidates who have appeared for their interviews either in-person or through the online platform.

At IIM Calcutta, online interviews were conducted through video conferencing software that the candidates could access from home. For IIM-Lucknow, about 40% of the interviews were conducted online. At IIM-Bangalore, where the PGP shortlisting is done, the selection for the PhD, PGPPM and PGPBA programmes will be made on virtual mediums in the near future.

IIM-Jammu, like IIM Calcutta and Indore, did not rely on the WAT and conducted online sessions on the zoom app for selection.

Hence, we can see that most of the institutes have already considered the online media for the recruiting process and are quite satisfied with the results. Due to the pandemic, all the institutes are switching to online teaching and other processes which is quite easier and may lead to major changes in the near future where most of the tasks would be done online.