IIM Lucknow and IIM Indore have eliminated the weightage of the written ability test round for calculating the final score of the candidates that will be used to generate the final shortlist for the admission to the institutions. The interviews for the remaining candidates have been shifted online as well.

The official websites of the IIMs show that because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, they have shifted the interviews for the remaining candidates online, but the written ability test cannot be conducted online.

Thus, the admissions committee has decided to drop to a written ability test and its weightage for the admission process of the candidates into the PGP and PGP-HRM programs for IIM Indore 2020.

This change will be applicable for all the candidates regardless of whether they appeared in-person or online for the interviews. This decision was taken to ensure the consistency and fairness for all the candidates appearing for the admission at IIM Indore.

Earlier in the year, IIM Lucknow became the first IIM to drop the written ability test for the evaluation of the selection of the CAT 2019 candidates.

A few top IIMs release the final shortlist of the candidates for admission to MBA batch of 2020-22

IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Kozhikode, and IIM Shillong released their final shortlist of the candidates for the admission in their MBA program. The MBA programs at IIMs usually commence around August, but they have been delayed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

It is quite likely that the incoming MBA batch at the IIMs will have to join the programs online due to the course of the coronavirus lockdown in the country.

How IIMs adapted to coronavirus pandemic

The global crisis of the coronavirus has forced the IIMs to adapt quickly and to reinvent themselves to carry on with their procedures and programs in the crisis without interrupting the education of their students.

Though the delayed admissions and cancelled job offers for the B-schools have fostered uncertainty among the students, the positive and heartening news of the B-schools going online for imparting education without interruption has bought about a sigh of relief.

IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore have released the final shortlist of the candidates for admission to their MBA programs.

IIM Ahmedabad has sent the admission offer to 395 candidates for its Post Graduate Programme, and it has also set a quota of 10 seats for the economically weaker sections of the society. The results for the other IIMs and the common admission process are also set to be released soon.

Amid the coronavirus lockdown all across the country, most of the B-schools, including IIMs, have decided to shift their courses online. IIM Calcutta has announced that it will be commencing its one-year residential program online, and the batch is also being referred to as the Covidien batch.

IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore have also commenced their Executive MBA programs online in the course of the lockdown due to the coronavirus. The batches of students were created virtually by the professors during the e-inauguration ceremony.

The newer IIMs are also adapting to the coronavirus crisis. IIM Udaipur  has announced 18 online management courses for its batch of MBA class of 2020-21 offered as elective and voluntary online courses.

IIM Kashipur has conducted trimester exams for its first-semester students digitally, which had a turn-out of 60 percent students; the remaining 40 percent will take the exams in the offline mode.

The online shift is no exception for the existing current students at the IIMs. IIM Bangalore has announced that for its second-year students, the PGP program will recommence online in July.

This could also be a hint about what is in store for the incoming batch of 2020-22 that is set to begin their MBA journey in August.

Another positive news that can be celebrated by the incoming MBA students is that the AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) has barred institutes including B-schools that are affiliated with it from hiking their fees for the academic year of 2020-21 keeping in mind the financial crisis experienced by the people during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

All India Council for Technical Education has also said that the affiliated institutes should not force the selected candidates to pay advanced fees during this lockdown.

The international applications to the top B-schools in the US have taken a down surge in the past few years. With the ongoing coronavirus situation, the B-schools have even steeper chances of attracting international students.

In order to make their MBA programs more attractive, many top-notch MBA schools have been pushing fore and acquiring STEM certification for their management program. In 2020, Yale school of management, Stanford’s graduate school of business, Columbia business school, Booth school of business, and MIT Sloan School of management, amongst many other business schools, have announced STEM certified pathways for their MBA programs.

Uber has unfortunately cancelled its offers for all MBA students across leading B-schools in India. This came after Uber announced that around 14 percent of its staff would be affected by reduction and workforce.

Meanwhile, FMS Delhi released the final shorlist with some major changes to selection criteria   

FMS Delhi has released its final shorlist for admission to the MBA program and has sent out offers to 101 students from the general category. But, this time around the selection procedure at FMS Delhi has experienced a massive change.

FMS Delhi has become the first of the top Indian Institues for management to completely forego the group discussions, personal interviews and the extempore rounds. This means that the 30 percent weightage these componenets had in the selection process has been completely overlooked and the candidates have been selected based on their CAT scores and their class 10 and class 12 marks.

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