ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS

Submitted To

Prof P.K. Bala

SUBMITTED BY:

Priyank Gupta

U106035

Shuchita Dikshit

U106105

1|Pa g e

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................5 Stakeholders .................................................................................................................................................................5 Student Council ......................................................................................................................................................5 DEANS Office ..........................................................................................................................................................5 Faculty ......................................................................................................................................................................6 Students ...................................................................................................................................................................6 Customers .....................................................................................................................................................................6 The Process ..................................................................................................................................................................6 Assumptions .................................................................................................................................................................7 Approach ......................................................................................................................................................................7 Define ............................................................................................................................................................................7 Current Elective Registration Process ...............................................................................................................9 Problems Faced by the Student Council ..........................................................................................................10 Time....................................................................................................................................................................10 Information provided by the DEANS office to the Student Council .......................................................11 Accountability for signature campaign .......................................................................................................11 Measure ......................................................................................................................................................................11 Six sigma calculation ...........................................................................................................................................11 Methodology .....................................................................................................................................................11 Result .....................................................................................................................................................................13 Verbatim comments:.........................................................................................................................................15 Six sigma level CALCULATIONS: ........................................................................................................................16 Analysis .......................................................................................................................................................................17 Questionnaire Explanation ................................................................................................................................18

2|Pa g e

Improve ......................................................................................................................................................................22 Information regarding courses at the beginning of the process ................................................................22 Create a database .............................................................................................................................................22 More structured sessions by interest groups .............................................................................................23 Sessions by faculty ...........................................................................................................................................23 Insufficiency of information regarding faculty ..............................................................................................24 Increase permanent faculty ...........................................................................................................................24 Reduce uncertainty about faculty .................................................................................................................24 Quality of faculty ..................................................................................................................................................25 Take feedback forms more seriously...........................................................................................................25 Ineffective query clearance by Student Council.............................................................................................25 Better preparedness of the student council ...............................................................................................26 Informal sessions organized ..........................................................................................................................26 Initial set of electives offered for major and minor streams .......................................................................26 Involvement of students .................................................................................................................................26 Increase faculty (permanent, visiting), invite more people from the industry ................................27 Comparative Analysis of Elective Registration Process with other IIMs.....................................................................27 IIM-A Elective Registration Process .................................................................................................................27 IIM-B Elective Registration Process .................................................................................................................28 IIM-C Elective Registration Process .................................................................................................................29 IIM-L Elective Registration Process..................................................................................................................30 IIM-I Elective Registration Process ..................................................................................................................31 Overall Suggestions .....................................................................................................................................................31 Create a Wiki.........................................................................................................................................................31 Content ...............................................................................................................................................................31 Ownership..........................................................................................................................................................32 Subjectivity ........................................................................................................................................................32 3|Pa g e

Benefits...............................................................................................................................................................32 Increase number of faculty ................................................................................................................................32 Implementation ...............................................................................................................................................33

4|Pa g e

INTRODUCTION
The elective registration process in Xavier Institute of Management is held for the second year students at the beginning of each term of their post graduate program. It allows the second year students to build a portfolio of their preferred courses that they choose to study in each term of the second year of their course. In the current methodology of the elective registration process the Deans o ffice takes the responsibility of initiating and seeing to the smooth execution of the entire process. The students choose their courses for the next term, subject to the rules laid down by the Deans office. STAKEHOLDERS The major stakeholders in the electives registration process are the students, the student council, the DEANS office and the faculty.

STUDENT COUNCIL The main function of the student council in the electives registration process is to facilitate communication between the faculty and the DEANS office and the students.

DEANS OFFICE The DEANS office lays down the rules and constraints within which the process is actually carried out. It also organizes and executes the electives registration process. Though negotiations between it and the student council can lead to change/relaxation/dropping of the rules, such alterations are usually very limited.

5|Pa g e

FACULTY Ordinarily a course is run when a faculty member offers the course. However at times if a sufficient number of students show interest in a course that is currently not offered by any faculty member then a faculty member may step in to offer that course. Else a visiting faculty may be requested to offer the same at XIMB.

STUDENTS As mentioned below the students are the chief stakeholders in the elective registration process and hence they have been considered as the customers. CUSTOMERS Students of XIMB who participated in the electives registration process have been considered as the customers. The opportunities of defects will be identified with respect to the customers. The opportunities have been identified with respect to what can be done to improve the current process.

THE PROCESS From the point of view of the students, the elective registration 'process' can be viewed as 1. A process - A sequence of steps are carried out of which the attributes that can be measured and evaluated are a. The presence of a particular step (vis--vis its elimination/substitution) Whether that step is warranted in the first place or can be done away with b. The sequence of steps c. The time taken for each step

6|Pa g e

d. Logic - The step is warranted but is the way it is carried out correct? 2. A set of Outcomes - This can be further broken down into the following measurable points a. Choice of preferred courses c. Preferred distribution of courses and credits across the terms

ASSUMPTIONS Revolutionary changes cannot be carried out. For example the shifting from the current way of carrying out the process to a bidding system is out of the scope of the project.

APPROACH The DMAIC approach has been adopted to study the problem and make suggestions for improvement

DEFINE A number of questions have been asked and answered to better understand the problem. Question 1 - What is the name of the product or process? Elective Registration Process Question 2 - What is the aim of the process? To allow the students of XIMB to select their preferred courses for the second year in a manner that is acceptable and satisfactory to all stakeholders.

7|Pa g e

Question 3 - Define the elective registration process; what it is and what it is not. The elective registration process is confined to the process where the students are given the option to build a portfolio of courses of their choice which is spread across the academic year subject to the credit requirements of the DEANS office. The process starts when the first step is taken by the presiding student council and draws to a close when the final list of courses for each student is frozen after the end of each term. However subsequent problems associated with scheduling of classes etc. do not constitute a part of the elective registration process. Question 4 - What is aim of the project? The aim of the project is to measure the current sigma level of the elective registration process and identify important areas of dissatisfaction and improvement in it. The aim also is to compare the process with those of IIMs and make suggestions for deployment. The idea also is to come up with as many suggestions possible without looking at their feasibility at this stage. Question 5 - What is the cost of an inefficient elective registration process? The costs of an ineffective elective registration process could be students not being able to register for their preferred courses which could have been achieved had the process been conducted in a more effective manner. Time taken is also a major concern for the student council and DEANS office that act as the bridge between the students and the faculty. Question 6 - What is the scope of the project? The following are the various constraints that will possibly limit the scope of the project. DEANS Office Constraints that may not be altered - Credit requirements for completion of minimum and maximum credits in a term, minimum and maximum credits for completion of degree, faculty allotment for different courses (in case a course is included that is not specifically 'offered' by any faculty member), Constraints that can be altered - Minimum and maximum registrations for a course to be offered
8|Pa g e

Visiting Faculty The availability of visiting faculty only in specific terms and their willingness to accommodate large batches pose a significant constraint to the process. Moreover scenarios such as the unavailability of a faculty member even after he has committed to a certain course may arise which are clearly out of the scope of the project and hence are not being considered. Infrastructure Classroom sizes, numbers of classrooms - These constraints are in turn reflected in the requirements laid down by the DEANS office. The roof of the house of quality that is developed later shows such relationships.

CURRENT ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS 1. Faculty releases course list 2. Pilot iteration 1. Students suggest new courses 3. Faculty Consider above 1. New courses negotiated 2. Faculty approved new courses circulated for signature 3. Willingness list sent to Functional Area Coordinator 4. Functional Coordinator sends list to Deans Office 1. Negotiation and approval 5. 1st Iteration 1. Estimate demand 2. Results handed over to faculty 3. Potential problems discussion
9|Pa g e

A. Caps B. Parallel scheduling C. Number of hours in a day D. Faculty availability E. Adjunct faculty 4. Negotiation on minimum requirements for a course F. Grades G. Previous courses/Knowledge 5. Negotiations on co-option of courses 6. Request for increase of caps 7. Courses dropped based on discussions in the previous steps 8. Check for credit limits for a particular term 6. 2nd Iteration 1. Courses dropped in 1st iteration not available for 2nd iteration 2. Courses dropped if signatures taken for a course not honored 7. Adjustments/Negotiations for courses that have been undersubscribed 8. Freezing of electives 9. Formal approval of Functional Area Coordinator, Deans Office and faculty members 10. Closure of elective registration process

PROBLEMS FACED BY THE STUDENT COUNCIL TIME Due to the shuttling among student community, the faculty and the DEANS office the process takes up a lot of time. The interaction of the student council with the faculty, the DEANS office and the student community can be bundled into fewer interactions.
10 | P a g e

INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE DEANS OFFICE TO THE STUDENT COUNCIL Though the total time spent in actual interaction will remain the same, the time required to arrange the meetings/get appointments can be reduced. This will hasten the elective registration process.

ACCOUNTABILITY FOR SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN In case a course has chances of being undersubscribed signatures are taken from the students who are interested in taking that course up. However, later such signatures are not always honored. This creates dissatisfaction among the faculty as well as the students who are interested but cannot take up the course since it is undersubscribed. A mechanism is required in place that will enforce some accountability on the students who sign for a particular course to later take up that course.

MEASURE

SIX SIGMA CALCULATION

METHODOLOGY 1. Identification of relevant attributes: Relevant issues were identified through discussion with students and student council (which conducts the elective registration process). These attributes were further classified into following categories:

11 | P a g e

Choice of electives: The attributes discussed under this category address following issues: 1. There were many times when students were not able to get their desired courses due to various constraints such as distribution of courses across various terms ( for eg. Scheduled time of two courses are clashing, credit limit for courses 2. Another aspect on which we tried to capture elective process performance was cross functional credits in terms of whether it was properly shared between various specializations. Faculty related: During our initial qualitative discussion we came to know that many students had to forego few electives because of the faculty associated with those electives .The attribute discussed under this category aims to validate this finding. Elective options available Due to various constraints like lack of faculty or interest of majority of students there is a possibility that an exhaustive initial list of electives was not considered. Since this can be a source of dissatisfaction among the students we plan to capture the same under this category. Information availability Attributes discussed under this category tries to address various aspects related to timely and accurate flow of information between student council and the students of PGP2 batch such as: 1. Detailed information about each course being offered and the main faculty as well as adjunct faculty offering the course. 2. Handling of students queries regarding elective registration process.

12 | P a g e

Process related Attributes under this category basically address various process related parameters like clearly outlined process details (schedule, methodology etc.) ,objectivity of process design and implementation and other important issues like time consumption , redundancy in process and some specific issues like whether the electives were strictly allocated based on student preferences. 2. Designing research instrument: An undisguised structured questionnaire was designed to include various attributes identified under the above categories. Two scales of measurement were used: a bipolar scale and a four point scale. Defects were identified using the following schema: On a 4 point scale - Rating of 1, 2 is a defect On a bipolar scale - yes /no as defect depending on wording of attribute.

3. Sample design and survey mode: A random sample of 100 PGP 2 students were selected for the survey and a face to face interview was done to get their feedback on various attributes .Also, apart from close ended questions we also asked them for their suggestions for improvement of the elective registration process. RESULT Based on the feedback total number of defects were identified under each attribute. The table below illustrates the number of defects under each attribute :

13 | P a g e

Attributes

Defects

% of Defects

Choice of Electives 1. Able to get preferred combination of majors and minors Choice of majors/minors affected due to distribution of courses across terms Choice of courses affected due to distribution of courses across terms Did you get all courses opted for in the first iteration? Sharing of cross functional credits between various specializations Satisfaction with administration behavior

13 45 48 26 43 45

1.70 5.75 6.14 3.32 5.50 5.75

3.

4. 5.

6. Faculty

7. Options of Electives

Electives forgone due to faculty associated

60

7.67

8. Availability of Info.

Range of initial set of electives available

57

7.28

9.

Sufficient details about the course to make an informed choice. Effective query clearance session Sufficient information regarding faculty before elective registration process Accuracy of information regarding faculty.

89 68 78 46

11.38 8.69 9.97

5.58

10. 11.

12. Process Improvements 13.

Time consumed by the elective registration process

47

6
14 | P a g e

14. 15.

Timely and clear communication of process details Whether the process was designed in an objective and unbiased manner. Whether allocation based on preference was properly implemented Redundancy in the elective registration process Approachability of student's council to take care of queries, concerns and suggestions.

14 21 31 28 23 782

1.79 2.68 3.96 3.58 2.94 100.00

16.

17. 18.

Total

Top 5 attributes having the highest number of defects: 1. Sufficient details about the course to make an informed choice. -- 89 defects. 2. Sufficient information regarding faculty before elective registration process 78 defects. 3. Effective query clearance session 68 defects. 4. Students giving up electives due to faculty associated with the electives 60 defects. 5. Initial range of choice of electives available 57 defects

VERBATIM COMMENTS : 1. There should be a shopping week where we sit with the professor in class to decide whether we want to take up the course or not. 2. We can't choose the faculty but I guess there are many constraints there elective process is held way too late: course contents/faculty was not known for quite a while. 3. There was too much horse-trading regarding marginal courses: HR courses were literally forced through.
15 | P a g e

4. There was confusion regarding cross functional courses. 5. During course selection rounds there should be quick link available for quick reference to Various course outlines and interest group's power points 6. Reduce the number of credit requirements. 7. Some of the functional. Areas did not have sufficient choice with regard to electives offered in it. 8. Distribute subjects evenly across the terms. 9. Should have more than one faculty as choice. 10. There should be provision of dropping or choosing a course after one week of commencement of a term SIX SIGMA LEVEL CALCULATIONS: Total number of defects = 782 Total number of opportunities = 18(attributes) x 100(sample size) =1800 Defects per million opportunities = (Total no. of defects / total no. of opportunities) x 1000000 = 782/ 1800 x 1000000 = 434444 DPMU Six sigma level at 434444 DPMU (without 1.5 sigma shift) = 0.78 Six sigma level at 434444 DPMU (with 1.5 sigma shift) = 1.67 Six sigma level here is very low primarily because we are measuring sigma level of a service. Since, here we are primarily considering dissatisfaction of students as a defect and students have basically tried to benchmark existing process with an ideal process thus sigma level is very low.

16 | P a g e

ANALYSIS The following chart shows the relative contribution of each question to the total number of defects

%age Defect
12.00% 10.00% 8.00% 6.00% 4.00% 2.00% 0.00% 9 11 10 7 8 3 13 12 2 6 5 16 17 4 18 15 14 1

Cumulative %
120.00% 100.00% 80.00% 60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00% 9 11 10 7 8 3 13 12 2 6 5 16 17 4 18 15 14 1

17 | P a g e

Based on the above charts the questions can be grouped into three clusters depending upon their relative contribution to the defects. Very Important The questions under this category are questions 9, 11, 10, 7 and 8. As can be seen from the chart showing the cumulative defect percentage these five questions contribute more than 60% of the total defects. Important This cluster would include questions 3, 13, 12, 2, 6 and 5. These questions contribute roughly 6% defects each to the total defects. Not Important Questions numbers 16, 17, 4, 18, 15, 14 and 1 contribute less than 4% each to the total number of defects. Hence comparatively they are not important at this point of time.

QUESTIONNAIRE EXPLANATION

Each question had been designed in order to measure a specific attribute relevant to the students during the elective registration process. These attributes are given below. Question 1 Getting one's choice of majors and minors Question 2 - A well-balanced distribution of courses across the terms (in terms of credits, majors and minors) Question 3 - Getting the courses one desperately wants Question 4 Getting one's courses in the first iteration itself

18 | P a g e

Question 5 - Fair distribution of co-option courses to majors Question 6 Behaviour of the administration Question 7 - Quality of faculty Question 8 - Initial set of electives offered for major and minor streams Question 9 - Information regarding courses at the beginning of the process Question 10 Student council's ability to furnish information Question 11 - Sufficiency of information regarding faculty Question 12 - Accuracy of information regarding faculty Question 13 - Time consuming nature or otherwise of the process Question 14 - Timely and accurate communication of process details (schedule, rationale, results, and status) Question 15 - Objectivity and fairness of the process Question 16 - Fairness or otherwise of inviting students in groups of ten according to their ranks to fill in their preferences Question 17 - Redundancy or freedom from it of the process Question 18 - Approachability of the student council to take in queries suggestions and concerns The following is the relative importance assigned to these attributes as obtained from in-depth discussions carried out with students.

19 | P a g e

To consider the most important problems the number of defects for each question was multiplied with the relative importance of that question. The results are tabulated below.

20 | P a g e

Question No. 9 11 7 10 8 3 12 2 6 13 5 15 1 4 18 14 17 16

Relative Importance 9 8 10 8 9 10 8 7 6 5 5 8 10 5 5 6 2 1

Defects 89 78 60 68 57 48 46 45 45 47 43 21 13 26 23 14 28 31

Product 8.0 6.2 6.0 5.4 5.1 4.8 3.7 3.2 2.7 2.4 2.2 1.7 1.3 1.3 1.2 0.8 0.6 0.3

21 | P a g e

IMPROVE From the analysis of the findings we were able to identify five most important issues based on the product of their score and importance level. In this section we would be addressing these problems.

INFORMATION REGARDING COURSES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PROCESS The most persistent problem among the students was the lack of information regarding courses provided to them at the beginning of the process. The main reason why this problem exists is the absence of a consolidated database either formal or informal carrying information about the courses. Another reason could be the frequently changing faculty. Basically, the faculty is responsible for the course content but since for most of the courses the faculty is either not fixed or changes due to some reasons which actually defeats the purpose of having a database. Even if the outgoing students do give their feedback but if the faculty changes for the next batch then that feedback doesn't hold good for him since every professor has a different approach towards a course. Recommendations CREATE A DATABASE We recommend that the database wherein the outgoing students give their feedback for a course and, faculty should be made available to the next years students, like it is done by the OBIII faculty ( Prof Indranil Chakraborty) and the strictness of faculty in giving grades so these can also be a part of the feedback. The evaluation pattern followed by the professor could also be included as to specifying the distribution of marks which helps students know if the evaluation is continuous or only exams based. The course load could also be part of the course since at times students take up courses to distribute their burden through the term so this would help them in maintaining a balance of tough courses and relatively lighter ones. The
22 | P a g e

usefulness of the course from placement perspective can also be mentioned which helps them gauge the importance of the course in their area of specialization. The students could also tell about the overall learning from the course and their experiences and how far the course fulfilled their expectations. For the courses which have been floated for the first time, the student who took the initiative for the introduction of the course should collect the above mentioned information from other institutes share it with DEANS office. A course outline can then be prepared and further finalized in discussion with the concerned faculty or area chair and then shared with rest of the students. In certain IIMs, students get a week at the beginning of each term to attend whatever courses they are interested in can then based on that freeze their decision of electives. This would enable them to know what they can expect from the course and also help them understand the teaching style of the faculty better.

MORE STRUCTURED SESSIONS BY INTEREST GROUPS Various informal interactive sessions with senior students can be arranged to get their feedback on various subjects. The interest groups like Maxim and X-Fin could take

responsibility for these sessions.

SESSIONS BY FACULTY Once all the course outlines are ready, they are shared through a database with the students for their perusal. Students have 2-3 days to go through the course outlines carefully. After this, some structured interactive sessions can be held with respective faculty. Though this arrangement is tough to implement in practice, it can be made more elaborate and interactive since after some sessions by interest groups and going through the course outlines, the students would have more queries and suggestions to contribute. The formal session with faculty should be spread over 2-3 days and as far as possible all the concerned faculty (permanent or visiting) should be present for the sessions.
23 | P a g e

INSUFFICIENCY OF INFORMATION REGARDING FACULTY The main reason for this problem can be cited as the lack of permanent faculty. Even the permanent faculty at times doesn't take the same course next year. Also the external faculty which is called does not necessarily come back next time hence they also keep changing. There is no database to keep track as to who all have been taking the courses in the past years. Recommendations

INCREASE PERMANENT FACULTY We all know the problems caused by the lack of permanent faculty are causing a discontinuity in the methods of teaching of different courses from one year to another, causing inconsistency. This is another hindrance in the Registration process This is another important measure that needs to be implemented effectively since all the problems are somehow linked to the problem of lack of permanent faculty. If this is done then students would know who is taking their courses and the decision to take a particular course would be more informed. But the other side of coin is that just in order to increase the permanent faculty we might compromise on the quality aspect. In that case students would rather prefer to have a good external faculty rather than having a bad permanent faculty. The institute should make sure that the best of faculty is brought in who can gel with the institute and students.

REDUCE UNCERTAINTY ABOUT FACULTY This can be done by making the whole process of approaching the faculty a continuous one spread throughout the year. At the time of choosing the electives the students should be aware of the different faculty that DEANS office is trying to call in even if it is not final. This would reduce the uncertainty to some extent.

24 | P a g e

QUALITY OF FACULTY The problem of students having to forego any preferred courses due to the faculty associated with it could be because of the problem of external faculty. Many times the load in such courses is high because the external faculty comes for few days in which it tries to complete the whole course. Also the level of interaction among the faculty and students is very low. Another reason could be the frequently changing faculty. Due to this the students are not able to connect with the faculty properly and hence perceive its quality as low.

Recommendations If possible sign contracts with faculty. The DEANS office should try and sign contracts with faculty for some fixed duration so that the students every year do not have to deal with some altogether new faculty. This would also increase the chance of converting this faculty to a fixed visiting faculty if not permanent

TAKE FEEDBACK FORMS MORE SERIOUSLY The feedback forms by students should be taken seriously and if there are some considerable complaints against a professor then some action should be taken to probe into the whole situation. The area chair can probably hold a meeting with the whole batch to listen to their problems so find out where the problem lay. The students need to be assured that their problems are being heard.

INEFFECTIVE QUERY CLEARANCE BY STUDENT COUNCIL This problem cropped up because there were some new courses that were added and also the confusion due to the courses that were shared across different specializations. There was a lot of randomness in the process and the students were unaware about was happening till the very end.
25 | P a g e

Recommendations BETTER PREPAREDNESS OF THE STUDENT COUNCIL The Student Council needs to be better prepared to answer the queries of the students. They need to take proactive action rather than reactive. Also the process needs to be saved from the last minute changes to avoid any confusion. INFORMAL SESSIONS ORGANIZED This time round the whole process was only communicated through mails. Rather an informal session can be organized by the Student Council to communicate the process to the whole batch and to answer any queries of the students. This session should be made as interactive as possible such that the students can also give inputs to make the process more efficient. INITIAL SET OF ELECTIVES OFFERED FOR MAJOR AND MINOR STREAMS The main reason for this problem is lack of faculty base with the institute. Though this time some new courses were floated but due to the uncertainties attached with them. Recommendations INVOLVEMENT OF STUDENTS The DEANS office and the students should work in tandem to solve the problem of less number of electives being floated. The students can suggest some courses that they want to include along with the names of other IIMs where it is included, the faculty information and curriculum. If some course is found to be suggested by many students then it can be included. This measure would not show many immediate results but in the long term it can help increase our course options to a great extent. Also this time around the Student Council did try something on similar lines but there is dissatisfaction among around the Student Council did try something on similar lines but there is dissatisfaction among students since they do not know what efforts were put in. The whole process can be made more transparent and interactive.

26 | P a g e

INCREASE FACULTY (PERMANENT, VISITING), INVITE MORE PEOPLE FROM THE INDUSTRY

DEANS Office should strive to increase the number of permanent as well as visiting faculties or alternatively hire faculties who can teach multiple subjects. Also people can be called from the industry to take sessions for students which will give them more exposure and help them better understand the application of concepts.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS WITH OTHER I IM S IIM-A ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS The electives process is conducted prior to every term about 3-4 weeks before the previous term ends. First the students are given list of courses and the seats available in each, professors and course outline. Then they have a bidding process. In this process each student is given points based on their first year CGPA like there are some minimum points given to each based on a certain threshold marks and from there on as their CGPA increases they get extra points in certain proportion. Once each person is allotted points they log on to an internal link meant exclusively for bidding. There they keep adding courses to their consideration set but this addition is limited by an upper limit. Once this is done then they bid for courses. If they bid too low then they might lose that course so they need to keep revising their bids. There are certain rules to the system like they can't take out points from a course that they are winning and they must bid at least the minimum bid points operating in that course. This process continues for 1:45 hrs plus a variable time unknown to the students meant to eliminate any problem with last minute bidding. Then the link closes and after 15-20min a confirmation window opens where they need to confirm the courses they have won during bidding. If any student has won more than the maximum credits in the term then he can drop the course he doesn't wish to pursue.

27 | P a g e

IIM-B ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS At IIM Bangalore, they have an electives process in a term prior to every concerned term beginning from term three itself. In term three they have to choose only two courses rest are compulsory but term four onwards all courses are elective. The process begins with a list of courses being released. Usually they have 20 to 22 courses to choose from. They also have complete information regarding the faculty and the distribution of marks for a course. Then there is a preliminary process wherein students select their courses. If a course is overbid then they first visit the faculty and try to get the limit increased. If this doesn't work then they have a bidding process where each student has 1000 points to bid on courses which have been overbid. Still if there are more than required students for a course then they have a lottery system. After this process is complete their academic department comes out with a schedule of classes for the whole term along with the exams schedule. Based on this the students choose their final electives which are binding on them. Then when the term begins the students have a window shopping week wherein they can attend as many classes for different courses and then make any desired changes in their electives for that term. They can change at maximum 2 courses. Some other highlights of the process: The whole process is done online The students have a database with feedbacks from previous batches regarding a course Ranks of students have no role to play Only two iterations There is nothing like major or minor in a course. The students can take whatever courses they like

28 | P a g e

IIM-C ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS

First students get to pre register for the courses they want. If the number of pre registration is lesser than the cap for the course and provided the min pre registration requirement is met, the course is floated and students can finally register for it if the no of candidates exceeds the Cap for a/any courses then the students are invited to bid for the course. Each student is allotted 1000 points. These 1000 points is for all the electives in all the terms of the second year. And he can bid for as many courses as he wants, until he/she exhausts the total of the 1000 points, in multiples of 50. For ex: 300 for course a, 550 for course B, and 150 for course C. The highest bids for the course get the course. i.e. if the cap is 30 students, the first 30 highest bids get the course If there is a tie for the last slot in the course, there is a lottery done in presence of an impartial observer (generally a student who did not opt for the course) and the lucky one gets the course from any functional area. If a student bids for a course and doesn't get that course he loses 50 points for bidding, i.e., if any student bids 500 out of 1000 points and doesn't get the course, he loses 50 points and is left with 950 points For uncapped courses all the students are given a chance to final register for it even if they didn't pre register for it

29 | P a g e

IIM-L ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS

The IIM L elective registration process starts at the end of third term and the total duration of the whole process from the first batch meet to finalization of electives is around two weeks. The registration process is totally automated and is done through an online polling process. Basically, the students are supposed to rank various electives based on which their concentration is decided. The ranking process is done online through six iterations which is completed in 4 to 6 hours. After each iteration students revise their ranking of electives based on result of each iteration. After 6th iteration no further changes can be made and the electives are finalized. Normally, at the end of the iteration process there is no clash between the choices of subjects among students. However, if such a situation arises then following criteria are used in the decreasing order of priority: Concentration Ranking CGPA Once the faculties are finalized, there is no switching of faculties and normally availability of faculty is not a major concern affecting student's elective choice Cross functional subjects exist but their credits can be counted in only one specialization thus there is no confusion with regards to that. According to students the whole registration process is objective and transparent.

30 | P a g e

IIM-I ELECTIVE REGISTRATION PROCESS

The electives process takes place soon after the students come back for the fourth term from their summer internship. The process is meant for the whole academic year. They do not have anything like major or minor. Any student can take any course in any functional area. The process is not online. The students have to fill up their preferred courses in a form and submit. No change of courses is permitted. All the students are accommodated in their preferred courses as there is nothing like over subscription. They only have an informal feedback session with their seniors regarding courses and faculty

Overall Suggestions

CREATE A WIKI

Wikis provide an excellent platform for a large number of people to work collaboratively. As opposed to single articles written by each author who leads to data redundancy, contradictions and a host of other problems, a Wiki allows several authors to work simultaneously on a single article which takes care of the above mentioned problems.

CONTENT The content put up on the Wiki would include information regarding the courses and the faculty. In case it succeeds it could be extended to include placement information and other relevant information.

31 | P a g e

OWNERSHIP It is suggested that the ownership and maintenance of this Wiki be handled informally by the students themselves rather than setting up a committee to coordinate its growth. This would enable the students to honestly share their views regarding courses and faculty.

SUBJECTIVITY In this context however the major roadblock is the subjective nature of most of the information. To tackle this problem feedback of students can be collected and included in the Wiki.

BENEFITS It will serve as a one-stop source of information regarding faculty, courses and possibly placements and other information that a student would require. The Wiki could also be extended to include academic content that would be very specific to IIM Kozhikode. The current practice of asking each student to separately compose documents documenting their

experiences is cumbersome and discourages readership as well as authoring. This can be easily circumvented

INCREASE NUMBER OF FACULTY

DEANS Office should strive to increase the number of permanent as well as visiting faculty or alternatively hire faculty who can teach multiple subjects. However care should be taken that no compromise should be made on the quality of faculty. This would help address various other issues such as timely and accurate information about faculty and students foregoing certain electives because of the faculty associated with it.

32 | P a g e

IMPLEMENTATION This is possible through joint effort of student body, faculty and DEANS office. DEANS office should engage in a continuous effort to source quality faculties from other institutes and industry rather than at the end of academic year. Students should also contribute by giving contact details of prospects from industry (students with work experience can help here) and from other institutes. Faculty too can effectively contribute by coordinating with DEANS Office. Finally, a single consolidated database should be maintained of prospective and past faculty for various electives consisting of all the relevant details like resume, students feedback etc.

33 | P a g e