IIMs may conduct interviews in same cities from this year

Despite contemplating an integrated interview process for the IIMs, the HRD ministry has finally decided to hold single city interviews for all the Indian Institutes of Management, from this year onwards.

The admission interviews of the candidates will now be conducted in a single city on consecutive days as per schedule. Although the ministry was earlier planning on having an integrated interview process for the IIMs the same way as it has for the IITs, the idea was eventually rejected, due to difference in the criterions of admission used by the IITs and IIMs.

For IIMs the CAT scores, together with the group discussions and personal interviews determine the final result. Therefore, the decision for a same city interview process was taken to avoid much problem for the candidates.

The same city interviews will reduce the stress on candidates appearing for the interviews. The CAT exam, which is starting soon, has around 2.4 lakh applicants each year and all these students have had to travel to six different cities for interviews in the past.

The decision, which was recommended by the Bhargava Committee, set up by former HRD minister Arjun Singh last year, will be implemented from this year onwards. The idea has already received consent from all IIMs.