SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai has been granted approval to increase its PGDM seats from 180 to 240. The expansion will come into effect from the next academic year 2012-2014. The approval from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) was given earlier this week and will translate to an increase of 15 seats in each of the four PGDM specialisations — finance, marketing, information management and operations.

Prof Parimal Merchant, chairperson, Centre for Family Managed Business at SP Jain said that the institute was rather surprised that the sanction was given so early. “We had applied in January this year and the permission came about two days ago. AICTE does not usually work so fast so we are pleasantly taken aback but happy.”

When asked whether the institute had the infrastructure to accommodate so many more students, Prof Merchant said that it was only after the infrastructure was in place that the application was put forward to the AICTE. “These are parts of AICTE compliances. Without them, we would not be able to even apply.”

On asking if too many good b-schools were now competing for the highest scoring talent in the Common Admission Test (CAT) for SP Jain to fill up the additional 60 seats with good quality students, Prof Merchant said that the admission system for SP Jain differed greatly from that at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). “The IIMs, be it Ahmedabad, Calcutta or Bangalore go more strictly by the Common Admission Test (CAT) scores. We do not. For us, the past academic performance is very important. So, for instance, a 92 percentiler will not be of interest to an IIM but if he has a good overall profile, he will be of interest to us.”

According to Merchant, SP Jain gets about 16,000 applicants every year for the PGDM. Of these, 2,000 reach the interview level and only 1,000 get to the second round of interview. Finally, 600 students are ranked for the final admission list.