IIM Ahmedabad’s Reservation Policy for PhD Admissions: The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad has announced a new reservation policy for its PhD admissions, effective for the 2025 academic year. As outlined in the PhD Admission 2025 information brochure, this year’s intake will adhere to the government’s reservation guidelines.
The esteemed B-school will now allocate seats for candidates from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and persons with disabilities in its doctoral program.
IIM Ahmedabad’s decision to implement reservations for its PhD admissions starting in 2025 comes after an assurance made to the Gujarat High Court. For over six decades, since the program’s inception in 1971, the institute had not provided reservations for underrepresented communities.
This shift follows a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Global IIM Alumni Network in the Gujarat High Court, which sought to enforce reservations in IIM Ahmedabad’s PhD programs. The PIL argued that the absence of such reservations violated constitutional provisions, the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act (CERA) and University Grants Commission (UGC) norms.
In response to the PIL, IIM Ahmedabad stated it would begin implementing reservations for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and disabled candidates in 2025.
According to the CERA Act, central educational institutions must 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 the PhD program at IIM Ahmedabad are required to take the Common Admission Test (CAT) or an equivalent standardised test.