IIM-A ignores quota for PhD course, professor writes open letter to director to follow constitutional values

In its advertisement, inviting applications for its doctoral programme the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad has mentioned no provision for reservation of seats for applicants from socially disadvantaged sections. It has drawn flak for blatantly violating a central law.

The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act provides for setting aside 49.5 per cent of seats in the institutes of higher learning — 15 per cent for Scheduled Castes, 7.5 per cent for Scheduled Tribes and 27 per cent for the Other Backward Classes.

According to a report in The Telegraph, sources in Ahmedabad B-school said every other IIM had introduced reservation in admission to PhD programmes from this year.

Until 2018, most of the 20 Indian Institute of Management had no quotas for PhD candidates from the socially disadvantaged sections. Even at present, none of the IIMs has introduced any system of reservation for hiring teachers.

The advertisement that IIM Ahmedabad issued says: “The PhD Programme of IIMA admits students who have a strong academic background, are highly motivated and who have the intellectual curiosity to undertake original research.”

In protest against this development, one fellow at IIM-Ahemdabad, Siddharth Joshi and Deepak Malghan, Associate Professor, IIM Bangalore have written an open letter to Errol D'Souza, Director at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad urging to “immediately reissue the Ph.D. admissions advertisement that is fully compliant with the constitutional mandates as well as statutory provisions of the very legislation that governs IIMA.”

“IIMA has a long history of wilfully skirting reservation provisions in the doctoral programme. We believe it is now time to make amends. IIMA is a public institution, and its actions in the Ph.D. program are in violation of the institute's implicit social compact. As we had written to you earlier, the "null matrix argument" that an institution cannot implement reservation in a programme that does not have a fixed number of seats is no more than a smoke screen that betrays the impunity with which IIMA has historically neglected questions of diversity and inclusion in its doctoral programmes. The argument that IIMA's doctoral programme is a super-speciality programme is just as fallacious. Ph.d. programmes at sister IIMs that are at least as rigorous as the the one at IIMA (and some of them arguably more research intensive than IIMA) have implemented reservations in their respective doctoral programmes,” reads the letter.

Here is the full text of the letter:

Dear Prof. D'Souza

Regarding: Reservation provisions in Ph.D. Admissions at IIMA, an open letter

We write this letter to you in distress, and in utter desperation. In clear violation of the IIM Act (2107) that granted unprecedented autonomy to IIMs, IIM-Ahmedabad has once again chosen to not implement reservations in its doctoral programme. Your Ph.D. admissions portal that opened up last week (https://www.iima.ac.in/web/fpm/apply/admissions) makes no mention of IIMA implementing reservation provisions as required by the INDIAN INSTITUTES OF MANAGEMENT ACT, 2017 which went into effect at the end of 2017. Indeed, this is the Act that enables IIMA and other IIMs to grant degrees including the Ph.D. The IIM Act clearly states that all IIMs (including of course, IIMA) are "Central Educational Institution for the purposes of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006” [vide Section 8 of the 2017 IIMA Act]. Section 3 of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, requires all Central Educational Institutions (which now clearly includes IIMA) to reserve seats in admissions in each branch of study for historically marginalized social groups.

IIMA has a long history of wilfully skirting reservation provisions in the doctoral programme. We believe it is now time to make amends. IIMA is a public institution, and its actions in the Ph.D. program are in violation of the institute's implicit social compact. As we had written to you earlier, the "null matrix argument" that an institution cannot implement reservation in a programme that does not have a fixed number of seats is no more than a smoke screen that betrays the impunity with which IIMA has historically neglected questions of diversity and inclusion in its doctoral programmes. The argument that IIMA's doctoral programme is a super-speciality program is just as fallacious. Ph.d. programmes at sister IIMs that are at least as rigorous as the the one at IIMA (and some of them arguably more research intensive than IIMA) have implemented reservations in their respective doctoral programmes.

As we had written to you earlier, implementing reservation in IIMS' Ph.D. programmes is a necessary condition to address the grave and unconscionable diversity deficit in the faculty composition of IIMs. The IIM faculty composition resembles apartheid era South Africa. At IIMs, we do not have the American "minority representation" problem as much as we have a "majority exclusion" problem.

As fellow members of the larger IIM community, we urge you to live up to the constitutional ideals of equality and fraternity. We implore you to immediately reissue the Ph.D. admissions advertisement that is fully compliant with constitutional mandates as well as statutory provisions of the very legislation that governs IIMA.

Sincerely,

Siddharth Joshi (Fellow of IIIM Bangalore)

Deepak Malghan (Associate Professor, IIM Bangalore)