Non-engineers storm India's top B-schools

INDORE: More economists and accountants. Fewer coders. From one-third to more than half in just a few years - non-engineers have stormed India's top B-schools, ending decades of engineering dominance. IIM-Indore's flagship MBA batch for 2025-27 has a little over 55% students from commerce, humanities, economics and arts backgrounds. IIM-Lucknow follows with just under 53%. IIM-Ahmedabad stands at about 50%.

Experts call this shift a "conscious academic design" - part of an effort to align with changing corporate demands for critical thinking, creativity, communication, and emotional intelligence.

"At IIM-Indore, representation of non-engineers has risen steadily over five years," director Himanshu Rai said. The 2025-27 postgraduate programme has 179 women and 91 men from non-engineering streams, compared to less than 45% engineers. Earlier batches saw about 41% non-engineers in 2021-23, a third in 2022-24, nearly 39% in 2023-25, and about 42% in 2024-26.

IIM-Ahmedabad's share of non-engineers has jumped from 33% to 50% in three years. Director Bharat Bhasker said the institute began introducing academic categories about a decade ago to ensure diversity. "An increase in applications from non-engineers has led to a healthy balance in classrooms," he said.

At IIM-Lucknow, 268 of 507 students in 2025-27 MBA cohort are from non-engineering backgrounds. "Commerce-related courses have attracted the most students," director MP Gupta said.