New Delhi, Oct. 16: The Centre will stop directly appointing members of IIM governing boards, creating a selection mechanism that may grant the institutes greater autonomy from the government but could curb their independence from each other.

A collegium of representatives from the IIMs, industry, and other academic bodies will be created to nominate IIM board members and directors, the human resource development ministry said.

The move, proposed today by HRD minister Kapil Sibal at a meeting with IIM directors, represents a middle path between what the government advocates and what the institutes want. It promises to end the practice of appointing IIM board members, in which most are picked by the government.

“We want to give the IIMs as much freedom as possible. We do not want to interfere with their appointments,” Sibal said after the meeting.

However, the IIMs must reduce the sizes of their boards, which now vary between 16 and 25 members, to no more than 13, Sibal said. “There’s no need for ornamental members on the IIM boards.”

Sibal also asked each IIM to present a five-year vision by next January to enable his ministry to gradually increase autonomy based on an institute’s ability to govern itself.

Sibal suggested that the IIMs prepare a “voluntary” affirmative action mechanism to induct more women employees, including faculty, clarifying that the government would not enforce any reservation for women.

The ministry also approved an IIM proposal to allow the institutes to start student hostels through public-private partnerships.

The idea of the collegium replaces an earlier proposal for a pan-IIM body along the lines of the IIT Council in charge of all IITs — a suggestion opposed unanimously by the IIMs. The pan-IIM body was envisaged by a government-appointed panel under Maruti chief R.C. Bhargava to enhance collaboration among the IIMs.

The seven IIMs had argued that a common board would encroach on their independent identities. Unlike the IITs, each IIM sets its own fees, and is free to follow its own policy decisions unless they run contrary to government norms.

The collegium proposed today will only have recommendatory powers limited to appointments, HRD ministry sources said, unlike the pan-IIM board suggested. But the collegium, common for all the IIMs, and the near uniform membership number that each IIM board will have could inject uniformity in governance structures that the institutes have always abhorred.