This Case Study on Admissions to PGDM Programs of TAPMI Manipal in 2014, was presented at Indian Management Conclave organised by MBAUniverse.com and won Silver Award and was published by McGraw Hill in a book

1. EXPANDING APPLICATION POOL:
APPROACHES THAT WORK –
“Experience TAPMI”
Prof. Chowdari Prasad
Dean – Public Relations & Chairman Admissions
T. A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal
E-Mail: chowdarip@tapmi.edu.in
Ph: 0820-2701045, 09482549472
Management Education in India is passing through consolidation stage. TAPMI being a three decade old B-School
located in a remote area has been experiencing ups and downs in the intake of quality students in all its programs.
Being a Globally Accredited and highly graded/ ranked B-School in the country, TAPMI has been adopting
innovative methods in its input- process- output stages while withstanding the increasing competition from public
and private B-Schools. TAPMI was the first non-IIM to use the CAT scores and scientific GDPI process in its
Admissions. Over a period, other popular entrance tests like XAT, GMAT and MAT were also added to the process.
Its Admissions policy is designed by a high level committee consisting of Director and Deans. Looking at the
current market scenario and the profile of the aspirants for MBA, TAPMI entered into MoUs with various partners
for executing its Admission process. Digital and Social Marketing are the current buzz words rightly adopted by
TAPMI to reach out to candidates PAN India and attract best of the application pool. In the process, the outcomes
have been phenomenal in attracting students for the existing 2 programs and introducing a third- PGDM- Banking
and Financial Services.
(Keywords: Experience TAPMI, MBA Admissions, B-Schools, GD WAT PI)
The Background/ Challenges that
lead to this initiative:
Government of India took the initiative of setting up
of high quality B-Schools in early sixties during last
century beginning with IIMs in Calcutta and
Ahmedabad. The private sector then followed and
today we have over 4,000 Management Institutes
offering various types of MBA Programs. In the last
decade, there has been mushrooming and over-
crowding of management institutes. Today, on one
side, there are Institutes closing down due to non-
availability of students and well qualified Faculty,
absence of innovation in curriculum, poor placement
records, etc., which are resulting in shutting down of
their operations. On the other side, there is
mushrooming of newer management institutes. So, in
order to stand out and create a niche market,
innovative techniques were to be explored and
adopted for reaching the large pool of students.
Besides battling to maintain the quality of students
and increased intake, as also providing avenues to
secure quality campus placements for the students in
existing two programs, T. A. Pai Management
Institute, Manipal (TAPMI) introduced a new
sectoral program of high demand, i.e., PGDM-
Banking & Financial Services.

3. IMAGE 1: India Map showing location of Manipal (Karnataka)
(Source: Internet)
TABLE 1: Increase in no of Institutes and Seats
Year
No. of
B-Schools
Increase/ Decrease MBA Intake
Increase/
Decrease
2013-14 3,364 -107 3,54,421 +5,052
2012-13 3,471 -70 3,49,369 +14,504
2011-12 3,541 +72 3,34,865 +6,808
2010-11 3,469 +179 3,28,057 +16,928
2009-10 3,290 +170 3,11,129 +16,077
2008-09 3,120 +205 2,95,052 +19,386
2007-08 2,915 +301 2,75,666 +28,465
(Source: AICTE Website)
The above table indicates the increase in number of institutes from 2,915 in 2007-08 to 3,364 in 2013-14; resulting
in increase in net number of seats by about 78,000. It is also found that the preceding two years had witnessed
closure of 177 institutes.

4. TABLE 2: Closure of B-Schools
State 2012-13 (Closures) 2013-14 (Closures)
Andhra Pradesh 31 37
Chattisgarh 5 None
Gujarat 4 9
Haryana 2 7
Karnataka 4 2
Kerala None 1
Madhya Pradesh 1 3
Maharashtra 4 7
Punjab 3 6
Rajasthan 16 6
Tamil Nadu None 2
Uttar Pradesh 11 13
Uttarakhand 1 1
(Source: AICTE Website)
The above table also indicates the number of B-Schools closed in some states during two years, 2012-13 & 2013-14.
Many B-Schools are going out of business primarily for want of sufficient applicants for their programs.
IMAGE 2: Tire 2 B-Schools Performances
(Source: www.trak.in)
From the above chart it may be found that between the two immediate preceding years, the number of CAT
applicants has come down by about 10,000 while about 400 B-Schools were closed down. Interestingly, the
percentage of MBA students in Tier 2 B-Schools getting employment has increased from 10% to 18%.

5. TABLE 3: CRISIL Findings about B
(Source: CRISIL Research Report, May 2014)
In the captioned research report, CRISIL catergorised B
occupancy rate, the annual salary, percentage of students placed and the 2 year program fee. It may be seen that
only 1 % of the Institutes have an occupancy rate of 95
with an average annual salary of Rs. 9.00 lakhs and above. These students pay the program fee of Rs.12
lakhs and almost all of them are employed in reputed companie
Tier 1 category conforming to all the 4 point criteria on account of its consistent performance.
Introduction to the Initiative
Keeping in view the national scenario, TAPMI
formulates its Admissions, Curriculum and Pedagogy
and Placements criteria. Sometimes, instead of Out of
the box thinking, a simple logical approach helps in
3: CRISIL Findings about B-Schools performance
(Source: CRISIL Research Report, May 2014)
In the captioned research report, CRISIL catergorised B-Schools in the country into 4 types based on their
occupancy rate, the annual salary, percentage of students placed and the 2 year program fee. It may be seen that
occupancy rate of 95-100, their students getting placements in reputed companies
9.00 lakhs and above. These students pay the program fee of Rs.12
lakhs and almost all of them are employed in reputed companies. Interestingly, TAPMI, Manipal falls under this
Tier 1 category conforming to all the 4 point criteria on account of its consistent performance.
Introduction to the Initiative:
Keeping in view the national scenario, TAPMI
formulates its Admissions, Curriculum and Pedagogy
nstead of Out of
the box thinking, a simple logical approach helps in
cost effective solutions. A ‘step by step’ approach
was followed by TAPMI for this year’s admissions
for conducting GD-PIs at 9 centers during March
April 2014 for its 3 programs, viz: PGDM, PGDM
HC (Healthcare) and PGDM-BKFS (Banking &
Financial Services).
Schools in the country into 4 types based on their
occupancy rate, the annual salary, percentage of students placed and the 2 year program fee. It may be seen that
100, their students getting placements in reputed companies
9.00 lakhs and above. These students pay the program fee of Rs.12.00 -15.00
s. Interestingly, TAPMI, Manipal falls under this
cost effective solutions. A ‘step by step’ approach
as followed by TAPMI for this year’s admissions
PIs at 9 centers during March-
3 programs, viz: PGDM, PGDM-
BKFS (Banking &

6. IMAGE 3: Step by Step approach/ Process to Admissions 2014
About TAPMI
TAPMI was established in the year 1984 as a fully
autonomous private B-School. It offers two years
Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM)
which is fully residential and approved by AICTE.
The other special features of the Institute/ program
are
 AACSB- International Accreditation
 A*** CRISIL Grading (the highest) for 3
consecutive years (2011-12, 2012-13 and
2013-14)
 AICTE Approved
 Consistently ranked among top 1% of over
4000 B-Schools in India
 ‘Gold Award’ at the 4th
IMC 2013 in New
Delhi for TAPMI’s Presentation on
Assurance of Learning
 ‘Best Director Award’ at HUL-BSA-
Dewang Metha B-School Award 2013
 ‘Institutional Appreciation Award’, AIMS
International, 2013
 ‘Best Business School in the South’, at
ASSOCHAM National Education
Excellence Award 2013
 B-School with ‘Best Industry Interface’ of
Dewang Mehta’s B-School Awards, 2013

7. TABLE 4: Admissions Committee Meetings
Meetings held on Major Decisions
First June 20, 2013
Brainstorming, Experiences from the previous year experience.
Feedback from students, Signing of MoUs with CAT, XAT & MAT for
Healthcare
Second July 29, 2013
No. of Seats, Cost of Application, Launching of New program-BKFS,
Announcement of Dates, Advertisement dates
Third August 29, 2013
AICTE Approval process, No. of Forms to print, Media Plan, Ad layout,
MoUs with Partners
Fourth
September 20,
2013
Advertisement in Newspapers, CAT Prep booklets, Announcement in
Website, E-mailers to aspirants
Fifth October 10, 2013 Sale on Online Application Forms
Sixth
November 21,
2013
Review meeting on the progress of Application sale, Responses to online
campaigns, Trends in CAT registrations.
Seventh
December 16,
2013
Second round of Campaigning stressing the last dates, GD PI Venue and
dates.
Eighth January 13, 2014
Extension of date to accommodate XAT aspirants, Final phase of
Advertisement on Extension, Announcement of GDPI dates.
Ninth Feb 12, 2014 Review, Closing of Application, Selection Criteria
Tenth Feb 20, 2014 Review meeting on Status, other coarse of actions, GDPI etc.
TAPMI has been striving to maintain its high standards in its selections of faculty and students. Accordingly, 10
meetings were held by the Admissions committee during the year 2013-14 to take decisions pertaining to the items
shown in the above table.
The First step towards the initiative was learning
from the previous years’ experience. A brainstorming
session was held by the Admission Committee to
plug the bottlenecks faced with the inputs provided
by existing students. The Admission Committee
comprises of experienced Faculty, Deans, Director,
and Functional Area heads. This committee discussed
issues with respect to calls, emails, questions, doubts
arising from students as well as simplifying the
procedures. Based on this, the policy was fine-tuned,
a newer policy was evolved and a time bound flow
chart was prepared as to how to conduct the hassle
free admission process.
How was this initiative executed?
TAPMI conducted a survey during the admissions
GDPIs in March/April 2013. A summary of these
findings was useful in formulating the policy for the
current year. The next step was to seek inputs from
the existing students. The current batch of students,
shared their experiences in selection process of other
leading B-Schools. These inputs were a rich source of
information on what is expected of the student
community. An informative email was sent internally
to existing students to elicit their suggestions.
Simultaneously, TAPMI website under Admission
page was updated with all the relevant information
like Application Procedure, Eligibility, Fee Details,
Information on availability of Handbook, AICTE
Approvals, Campus facilities, information on
Manipal/Udupi, Contact Information, Educational
loans and FAQs as also Refund Policy (AICTE).
This was followed by an advertisement in
newspapers and business magazines, informing the
aspirants as to what TAPMI is looking for
Admissions (eligibility, exams accepted, start date of
applications, Payment modes, last date of
applications along with contact details and website).

8. This was also publicized using the digital/ social
media to reach maximum aspirants and create a viral
effect. TAPMI has, this year, reduced the expenditure
on Print Media and moved towards Internet Media
like Facebook, Pagalguy, etc., as also usage of
YouTube extensively. TAPMI is listed in more than
30 popular MBA related websites like MBA
Universe, Careers360, Shiksha.com, premba.in, etc.
In order to facilitate the applicant and for a wider
reach, TAPMI used both online and physical forms
for its sale of Admissions applications pan India,
done through Axis Bank and 2 coaching centers-
TIME & IMS learning, besides Over The Counter
sales at its Manipal and Bangalore offices. The online
campaign partners were MBAUniverse.com,
Careers360.com, Shiksha.com, InsideIIM.com,
CareerAnna.com and MBARendezvous.com.
Besides, various online activities were initiated for
the tech savvy students. They were
 Direct E-Mails
 Auto Reply emails
 Reminder Emails
 Visual Banners
 Thread in Pagalguy page
 Facebook Contest
 E-Mailers from different partners at regular
intervals
 Web Activity Trackers
 Sponsored Handle with logo
 Admission Notification
 Online chat
 Social Media Integration of Content
 Articles on the events at TAPMI
 Ads in Emailers
 Counseling Thread
However, the submission of application was a fully
online process. TAPMI moved from receiving
physical applications to complete online process to
cope with present technology where even laptops are
being replaced with touch based palm sized devices.
This move was user-friendly to both the Admission
Team as well as the tech-savvy students, besides
being environment friendly. An aspirant could log in
from anywhere to key in his information for filling up
the data which involved 5 simple steps. He could log
back to fill in the application from where he had left.
On completion, an auto generated PDF document of
the application is sent to the candidates to his
registered e-mail id. These services were rendered by
M/s. Thotmatrix enabling us to monitor the receipt of
applications on real time basis with break up data for
each of the 9 centers as also for each of the 3
programs.
Besides, an Auto reply facility was also created for
students writing to Admissions Office seeking
Clarifications. A set of 31 FAQs were also updated in
the website for quick reference of the candidates.
These drastically reduced the number of calls
received in Admission Office as most questions were
answered. This year TAPMI had partnered with 6
online portals as against 3 the previous year, besides
using social media like Facebook, Pagalguy, blogs
etc.
TAPMI website was very dynamic and was updated
with all the necessary information for candidates. The
Admission Page had information on
 Overview of Admissions
 Procedure for Applying
 Eligibility
 Fee Details
 Handbook- Online Application
 Campus Facilities
 Scholar Loan Scheme
 Information to Admitted Students
o Affidavits
o Medical Certificates
o Checklist
 Online Assessment- FLIP
 AICTE Refund Policy
 FAQs
 Information on Manipal/ Udupi
TAPMI website is very transparent and is exhaustive
with Information. The Website as a whole has all the
information on all the activities of the Institute that
will answer any queries of the students and any
visitor.
 4 Years B-School Ranking Reports
 6 years Placement Data (audited by IPRS)
 17 TAPMI Silver Jubilee Leadership
Lectures
 28 Annual Convocation Speakers
 31 TAPMI Founders day lecture speakers
 Alumni Data from 1984 to 2014
 Alumni in Top Leadership Positions
 Student Activities – Brandscan, Atharva,
Disha etc
 Institute/ Faculty Achievements- Awards

9.  Corporate Speakers who addressed students
E-Mailers were sent to all the applicants/ aspirants
from time to time by all our online campaign
partners. Printed posters were sent to all leading
engineering/ degree colleges for display on their
notice boards.
IMAGE 4: Model of Poster/E-Mailers
Having regard to the past experience the Admission
committee reviewed the formats for conducting of
GDPI, weightages for each of the components like
Academic performance (10th
, 12th
& degree level),
Percentile scores of the entrance exams (CAT, XAT,
GMAT & MAT), performance at the GD level,
Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview
(PI). Due weightage was also given to both
educational qualification and employment
experience. Topics of Contemporary interest like
socio-political- economic were given for Group
Discussion/ Written Ability Test. In order to attract
the best of the talents, Top performers at each of the
centers were offered admissions and asked to pay a
token amount of fee within a week’s time. Thereafter
merit candidates were offered admissions. All
communications were sent through electronic mails.
All the payments were received online. Both the
categories of selected candidates were given two
more weeks’ time to pay the first installment fee.
Challenges faced while executing
the initiative and their solutions:
Although being a 3 decade old leading B-School, a
major disadvantage for TAPMI is its location. Most
leading B-Schools are located in Tier-I and II
cities. TAPMI is located in Manipal which is a Tier-
III city and is not so well connected, but is an
international educational hub. Besides, stiff
competition from other top B-Schools was also to be
tackled to retain the market share.

10. TAPMI adopted the ‘Experience TAPMI’ strategy.
In order to make its brand felt and increase the
visibility among the recruiters, increase Industry
Institute Interface and to make them understand what
TAPMI is, we had to make them undergo the concept
of “seeing is believing”. TAPMI accredited by
AACSB- International in April 2012 follows the
learning standards specified by them and emphasizes
on ‘Outcome based Learning’ and ‘Assurance of
Learning’. Every Industry professional who visited
the Institute, interacted with Director, Deans, Faculty
& Students to experience the Institute. They were
given heads up on what makes this Institute stand out
from others.
TAPMI in order to take early mover advantage,
conducted its GD-PIs during March- April in 9
centers all over India. It has a healthy practice of
inviting Industry professionals to be members of
Panels along with TAPMI Alumni and Faculty. In
order to stay ahead, TAPMI released center wise
merit list within 4-5 days of GDPIs. This facilitates
all the working community to make informed
decisions, obtain bank loans as also get relieved from
their employers.
Results Achieved:
In view of all the above efforts and means of
communication, the following results were achieved.
 Increased the number of applications
registered from the previous year (6800 to
7667)
 Increased goodwill among students as they
were given enough time to inform their
companies/ employers
 Ample time for students to arrange their
finances/ arranging of bank loans
 Drastic reduction in the calls and emails
from the previous year
 More Streamlined Admission Process
 Working professionals provided with
enough time to attend GDPI as also in
deciding to join the program
 Students from 25 states represent the batch
 Admitting students with high percentiles
(CAT-97.58, XAT- 99.38 and GMAT- 720)
 30 % of Fresher’s admitted
 Good Mix of Students in terms of number of
States, Technical/ Non-Technical
background
o ( 83 % Engineers & 17 % from
other streams)
 A healthy gender mix of Male-Female
o (67 % male & 33 % female)
Overall, it was a fulfilling and challenging task for
the Team Admissions at TAPMI in
 Strengthening the flagship PGDM program
 Maintaining PGDM – Healthcare
Management
 Introducing a Sectoral program in Banking
& Financial Services
References
1. Admission Criteria of 20 other leading B-Schools from individual websites.
2. AICTE letter no: F.No: South –West / 1-2016499947/2014/EOA dated 11 March 2014 regarding approval of 3
programs/ seats
3. AICTE Approval Process Handbooks (2011-12) and (2012-13)
4. AIMA Report on Management Education
5. Best B-Schools in India- Surveys/ Rankings for 2013 by various magazines namely Business Today, Business
World, Business India, Outlook, The Week, Competition Success Review and web platforms
www.MBAUniverse.com, www.siliconindia.com, www.insideiim.com, www.careeranna.com,
www.mbabychoice.com

11. 6. Circular no. PB/PL/06 dated 02 May 2014 issued by State Bank of India Corporate Centre, Mumbai to all its Local
Head Offices- Sanction of Scholar Loans for students of TAPMI.
7. Comparison of 21 pairs of leading B-Schools in India by www.CareerAnna.com, March-April 2014.
8. Cost Benefit Analysis of doing an MBA by Anamika Chaudhary, IIM-K Kozhikode (2013-15): CRISIL YOUNG
THOUGHT LEADER
9. CRISIL Opinion , May 2014: “MBA Dream” withering away
10. Enhancing the Value of MBA, 4th
IMC 2013- MBAUniverse.com
11. How to do well in GDs and Interviews- For the CAT and other MBA entrance examinations (3rd
Edition) published
by Trishna Knowledge Systems of TIME and Pearson, 2013
12. Management Education in India- Crisis or Opportunity? : Status of Education Report Series, September 2013 of
Careers360.
13. Survey Questionnaires administered on all GDPI candidates in 2013 & 2014
14. TAPMI GDPI standardised formats A, B, C & D.
15. TAPMI Website Information on Udupi and Manipal (www.udupipages.com)
16. The ASSOCHAM paper on “Appetite for MBA tumbles down”
17. “The Young MBA Induction Pack”- online program offered by M/s. Finishiatives Learning India Pvt. Ltd. (FLIP)
18. Trends in MBA Enrolments 2012-13- Comprehensive Analytical Report (All India Edition), Pagalguy 2013
19. Which Specialisation: Catalogue for MBA courses in India, 2013- Careers360
20. www.insideIIM.com