Jamnalal Bajaj Mumbai Not to Admit any Outside Maharashtra Student; To damage brand, diversity

Impounding the Autonomous Status of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) Mumbai, DTE Maharashtra has clipped the wings of this leading Mumbai based B-school by taking away all admission powers in 2018 and reserving all the 120 seats to Maharashtra State candidates with No seat offered to Outside Maharashtra State candidate, referred to as All India (AI) Candidate. The participation in DTE CAP 2018 has cost JBIMS dearly with no CAT/CMAT topper getting any admission opportunity to the college.

The experts find that sudden change in 100% Seat reservation for Maharashtra State (MS) Category candidates, may result in diluting the high standard of education leading to low placements and ultimately giving a set back to the high reputation of the most sought MBA college JBIMS Mumbai.

JBIMS: No Seat to All India Candidate: Loses Brand & Diversity
JBIMS Mumbai, the Autonomous and most sought after MBA college of Mumbai University has not offered admission to any All India (AI) category candidate in 2018 despite having a reservation of 15% seats for the AI candidates as has always been offered earlier.

The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) Government of Maharashtra appears to have made JBIMS Mumbai only a state level MBA college by keeping all the 120 MMS 2018-20 seats only for Maharashtra State candidates.

The inclusion of students from different parts of the country improves the brand and diversity in the class rooms. This is the reason that IIMs and other top B-schools are making changes in their admission criteria that can further improve the diversity of culture, academics and gender in their programmes.

18 All India Category Seats Scrapped by DTE
The admission process and seat allotment for MMS 2018-20 at JBIMS Mumbai has remained through Centralized Admission Process (CAP) conducted by DTE Maharashtra. One of the key facts in regard to JBIMS Mumbai is that the institute has been offering 18 seats out of 120 to All India category candidates on the basis of scores of other entrance exams like CAT, CMAT, XAT, ATMA, MAT apart from MAH CET. Although DTE has announced to accept all these exam scores in CAP rounds for All India category candidates, it has made JBIMS as an institute meant only for Maharashtra category candidates. This has led JBIMS losing its All India competitive Ranking status and the students of 2018-20 batch at JBIMS may also remain confined to regional fabric only.

3 CAP Rounds Over: 100% Seats Awarded to MS candidates
All the three CAP rounds are over now, but DTE has not allotted a single seat in JBIMS to any All India category candidate despite scoring 99.9 percentile in CAT 2017 or MHCET 2018. As is evident by the JBIMS seat allotment shared below and completed for all the 3 CAP rounds by DTE Maharashtra for MMS 2018-20 batch, there are neither any All India category seats, nor any minority or any other type of seats for admission to JBIMS Mumbai.
DTE Maharashtra despite its claims to consider various entrance exam scores in CAP has gone back on its own stand and kept JBIMS away from moving further with a competitive edge by allotting all the seat to MAHCET exam takers. The JBIMS seat allotment for MMS 2018-20 in the three CAP rounds further emphazises this fact:

CAP Round-I: No Seat allotted to Outside Maharashtra Candidate

CAP Round-II: No Seat goes to Candidate from Outside Maharashtra

CAP Round-III: No Seat to Candidate from Outside Maharashtra

CAT 2017 Toppers cry foul
Many CAT 2017 high performers who have scored 99 to 99.99 percentile, from All India category candidature and aspiring for admission in JBIMS, have not been offered admission only due to this fact that there is no seat for any candidate from outside Maharashtra, however good he/she may have done in the entrance exam or may have excellent academic record.

These toppers have been complaining that DTE Maharashtra did not inform earlier that JBIMS seats were reserved only for Maharashtra State category candidates and not seat would be available for outside Maharashtra candidates. In view of these candidates, DTE Maharashtra deliberately omitted this fact while releasing the MAHCET 2018 notification and disseminating the information about CAP 2018 round. Since maximum number of candidates get attracted towards JBIMS, candidates from outside Maharashtra opine that DTE had shared no information earlier on JBIMS seat allotment, as it feared that there would be negligible registrations from the All India category candidates who applied to participate in CAP 2018 with their CAT/CMAT/XAT and other exam scores.

JBIMS Contemplating to adopt own admission process
JBIMS conducted its own admission process in 2015 accepting MHCET and CAT scores for admission. It did not participate in DTE CAP in that year. However, Government of Maharashtra made JBIMS take U-turn in 2016 and despite having autonomous status JBIMS had to participate in DTE CAP 2016, 2017 and 2018. Although for admission 2017-19, JBIMS had initially announced that it would not participate in DTE CAP and planned to conduct its own admission process in order to further the glory of the institute, DTE Maharashtra did not allow it to do so, probably fearing that it would lose thousands of candidates registering for DTE CAP as the JBIMS remains the target B-school for almost all the MBA aspirants.

A debate is still going on whether to grant the admission powers to JBIMS and to allow it to conduct its own admission process the coming year.

JBIMS: Not in MHRD-NIRF Ranking 2018
JBIMS Mumbai has not found any place among the top 100 management institutes in India, in the Government of India, Ministry of HRD, NIRF 2018 Ranking although SPJIMR Mumbai, NMIMS Mumbai, IIT Mumbai, NITIE Mumbai are ranked among top 50 MBA colleges in the Country.

Not only this, JBIMS has also not figured in other credible national rankings like MINT-MBAUniverse.com Ranking 2017-18.

In case the JBIMS Mumbai continues with the same admission criteria in future also, it runs the risk of losing the competitive edge that it gets by providing admission to CAT/XAT toppers. Besides, the placements in future may also get a set back with all the students coming to JBIMS through MAHCET exam only. The curriculum updation, pedagogy changes need constant vigil on Global trends. A B school offering admission to the candidates from all parts of the country is therefore better placed than the one confined to only a particular State. The Placement trends at JBIMS Vs other Mumbai B-schools like SPJIMR, NMIMS, NITIE among others further clarify this point.
It will be better for DTE Maharashtra either to empower JBIMS to evolve its own admission process without keeping the B-school bound to participate in CAP or restore and increase the reservation of seats for All India candidates.