Starting academic year 2025, IIM Ahmedabad will have reservation of seats for its PhD programme. According to the PhD Admission 2025 information brochure, this year’s intake will follow the government’s reservation guidelines.
The premier B-school will now reserve seats for candidates from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), and persons with disabilities in its doctoral programme.
The institute’s move comes after it assured the Gujarat High Court that it would implement reservations for PhD admissions beginning 2025. For over six decades, IIM Ahmedabad had not provided any reservations for under-represented communities in its PhD programme, which began in 1971.
The decision follows public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Global IIM Alumni Network in Gujarat HC, which sought the enforcement of reservations in IIMA’s PhD programmes.
The PIL argued that the lack of reservation in the programme violated constitutional provisions, the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act (CERA), and University Grants Commission (UGC) norms.
In its response to the PIL, IIM Ahmedabad orally stated that it would begin implementing reservations for SC, ST, OBC, and disabled candidates in 2025. The CERA Act mandates that central educational institutions reserve 15 per cent of seats for SC candidates, 7.5 per cent for ST candidates, and 27 per cent for OBC candidates.
Applicants to IIM Ahmedabad’s PhD programme are required to take the Common Admission Test (CAT) or an equivalent standardised test.
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