IIMs struggle to complete faculty reservation rosters despite Centre’s directive

Nearly a year after the Ministry of Education, many Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are still working on creating faculty and non-teaching reservation rosters. According to a Hindustan Times report based on official documents received through the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the various IIMs could not complete the exercise yet.

The report said the issue was discussed at the IIM Coordination Forum meeting during September 2025. During the meeting, officials pointed out different challenges in applying the reservation rosters and highlighted difficulties in finding candidates.

By the forum’s second meeting on May 14, 2026, eight IIMs had still not shared the details of their sanctioned posts by category. These IIMs include IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Indore, IIM Ranchi, IIM Rohtak, IIM Udaipur and IIM Mumbai. Many draft reservation rosters are also pending from ten IIMs.

The Ministry of Education has reported that such information is frequently asked in Parliament. In September 2025, the ministry had asked all the IIMs to make their reservation lists and send them to the concerned official.

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IIM forum discusses faculty concerns

According to the report, the May 2026 meeting also discussed the measures for increasing the number of eligible candidates from reserved categories. One suggestion was to use post-doctoral fellowships so that they can identify and train researchers who might later join IIMs as faculty members.

The IIM forum had also discussed giving scholarships to candidates who belong to the reserved categories at newer IIMs. Another suggestion was to allow newer IIMs to temporarily bring in experienced faculty from older IIMs to address faculty shortages.

Based on the data received by RTI and referred to by Hindustan Times showed that nine IIMs had many vacant reserved faculty positions. The data indicated that 58.6 percent of sanctioned OBC faculty positions, 55.9 percent of SC positions, 79.6 percent of ST positions and 77.6 percent of EWS positions were vacant.

Himanshu Rai, IIM Indore Director, said that “The long-term solution was to encourage more students from reserved groups to pursue PhDs and give them with post-doctoral training and mentoring.” IIM Lucknow Director MP Gupta said that all IIMs should follow the reservation rules, but some posts can remain vacant if suitable candidates are not available.