Students of IIM Kozhikode click a selfie duting their graduation day in Kozhimode's IIM.
The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode entered the record books over the weekend with the largest number of women graduates from any top business school in India -more than 50% of the batch. The best all-round performer, as well as the second and third rank holders, were women.
"To have so many women in a class meant a lot of learning. This will be to my advantage as I join the corporate world - where gender sensitivity with performance is a key factor," said Harsh Yadav, a graduating student. Another, Ankita Pai, added; "Today when there are only few women in top positions, we believe tomorrow we all will rise to be the CEOs of various companies.
The Kerala IIM has seen an impressive rise in the intake of women students. In 2010, the number of women students made up around a third of the student body. This year, the comparable figure is around 55 per cent.
IIM Kozhikode, set up in 1996, has made a deliberate effort to attract more women students by focusing on an inclusive admission criteria, looking beyond what they call "engineer-friendly" CAT (Common Entrance Exam) entrance exams and including other variables. "When you look at elements beyond CAT, group discussions and interviews - like consistency of academic performance from SSC level, performance beyond academics or experience - that's where you start seeing diversity appear," said Dean for Academics Keyoor Purani.
The Kerala IIM's history-making achievement assumes greater significance as more companies are looking to hire women across management levels. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has mandated that every listed company have at least one woman director on its board, and many companies scrambled to meet the April 1, 2015 deadline.