Bhubaneswar, Aug. 3: The decision of Utkal University authorities to reduce the number of seats for the five-year Integrated Management in Business Administration (IMBA) course has disappointed many management aspirants. This year, the seat number has been reduced to 40 from the earlier sanctioned strength of 60.

The admissions to IMBA concluded today and many aspirants had to return home frustrated. “The reduction in the number of seats affected my chances of getting admission into a course for which I had been preparing hard for the past two years,” said Sambit Mohanty, an aspirant.

The head of the business administration department said the declining quality of students had forced them to reduce the number of seats. “Earlier, the IMBA programme used to attract more than 1,000 applications for the 60 seats, but since the last two years, the number has come down drastically. As a result, we were finding it difficult to filter quality students from among the applicants. Given the circumstances, reducing the seats was the best decision,” he added.

This year, only 343 students appeared for the entrance examinations for IMBA. “Authorities of the MBA department had made a suggestion to reduce the number of seats and keeping in view the logic behind it, the PG council had approved the proposal,” said Samson Moharana, ex-chairman of the PG council of Utkal University.

Another factor behind the move was the infrastructure facilities of the department. Currently, the classes for IMBA, executive MBA, agri MBA, and MBA are running in one department. According to B.B. Mishra, the coordinator of the IMBA course: “The department was initially designed for 60 students of regular MBA. In course of time, the number of students have increased five times but the classroom space has remained the same.”

Former students of the departments agree with Mishra. “The building and classrooms need to be renovated to accommodate 600 students of this department. Classes are held in phases for the want of adequate classrooms,” ex-student Dushmant Soren said.

At present, there are 60 students on the rolls for regular MBA and 120 in executive MBA. Apart from that, 120 more students are enrolled in Agri MBA and 280 students in IMBA courses.