COVID-19 Lockdown: IIMA e-inaugurates 1 year MBA program

NEW DELHI: In a first, amid the coronavirus lockdown, Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad, or IIMA, e-inaugurated the postgraduate programme in management for executives, or MBA-PGPX, on Wednesday.

The students of the full-time one-year programme attended the introductory session for the academic year 2020-21 on a conference call.

The country is now undergoing the second phase of lockdown which has been extended till May 3, 2020.

This year, the 15th batch of the programme witnessed a surge in the number of women students enrolled which went up to 28 percent. Last year the number of women students constituted 23 percent of the total strength.

High scores

A statement released by IIMA said: "The 2020-21 batch has an average GMAT score of around 690 and GRE score of 317, the average age of about 31 years and seven months and the average total work experience of 8.6 years,"

The current batch includes 9.29 percent of students from the non-residential Indian, or, NRI background. Around 36 percent of the batch also boasts of international work experience of a year and a half on an average.

Over 1,500 students have graduated from MBA-PGPX which was first launched in 2006. Seats in the program were increased from 90 to 140 in the academic year 2017-18.

Addressing the students, Viswanath Pingali, chairperson, MBA-PGPX said, “Academic rigor and mental discipline would determine success in this program. Keeping in view the overall structure of the program, we decided to take a small portion of Term 1 online.”

He also assured the students about the eventual reopening of campus classes and lauded the incoming students. “Looking at the profile of the current batch, I feel very confident that the batch will take the programme to newer heights,” he added.

Postponed convocations

The pandemic has disrupted academic schedules of the IIMs as well. To ensure social distancing, top IIMs in the country, including IIMA deferred the annual convocation for the Class of 2020. The institute, instead, placed photographs of its graduating batches in the plaza.

Also read:

• Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak: Latest Updates
• COVID-19 may hit IIM and IIT placements badly: Reports

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