IIMs plan common entrance test for UG courses, RTI reveals

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are preparing a major change to their undergraduate admission process. This emerged from documents obtained on September 15, 2026 under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. According to these documents, all the IIMs are considering bringing in a single common entrance test for UG programmes. There is also a proposal to launch a centralised digital counselling platform for MBA admissions.

The proposal was placed at a meeting of the IIM Coordination Forum held on May 14, 2026, chaired by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

There are currently 22 IIMs in the country, of which 13 run UG programmes, including institutes at Indore, Rohtak, Ranchi, Jammu, Bodh Gaya, Amritsar and Shillong. At present, more than 10 different tests and methods are used for admission across these institutes, which means students have to appear for a separate exam for each IIM, causing considerable difficulty and confusion. Dharmendra Pradhan had earlier said it was not right to hold separate entrance tests for the same course, and that this practice should be avoided.

Changes are also being prepared in the rules for MBA counselling and fee refunds. IIM Mumbai submitted a draft of a common digital counselling platform to the Ministry of Education by the end of July 2026. The aim is to ensure students do not have to repeatedly book seats at different IIMs, and to protect them from the financial loss caused by paying non-refundable fees.

Besides this, from the 2026-27 academic session, a uniform fee-refund policy will be implemented across all IIMs in line with University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines. Currently, different IIMs have different rules, and students who left one institute to join another faced significant financial loss as a result. The new rules aim to address this problem.