Increase in engineer applicants, 70% cohort with work experience: IIM Sambalpur welcomes inaugural MBA business analytics batch

Indian Express

01-07-2025

The Indian Institute of Management, Sambalpur, has welcomed its inaugural MBA Business Analytics batch. In the latest admissions cycle for the academic year (2025-2027), IIM Sambalpur has reported a slight increase of 5 per cent in the number of engineers admitted compared to non-engineers. Of the total 363 graduates admitted across both the MBA programmes, 186 students, constituting 51.24 per cent of the batch, hold engineering degrees. This course also includes three students with physical and mobility challenges.
While non-engineer students account for the remaining 48.76 per cent, as mentioned in the press release. The preference for a technical background is evident in the MBA in Business Analytics (MBA‑BA) programme, where the engineering cohort comprises 61.70 per cent.
However, the flagship MBA programme reports a near‑equal distribution, with 49.68 per cent of graduates from engineering and 50.32 per cent from non‑engineering students.
Additionally, the MBA‑BA cohort stands out for its industry readiness, as 100 per cent of the cohort possess prior work experience, thereby increasing the practical orientation and applicability of the programme in the evolving business environment.
Complementing this academic spread is healthy gender diversity: the incoming batch is 33 per cent female and 67 per cent male overall, with the flagship MBA classroom showing 38 per cent women and 62% men, while the MBA‑BA pioneers include 5 per cent women and 95 per cent men.
Disciplinary variety stretches well beyond engineering—around 20 per cent of students hold commerce and accountancy degrees, 9 per cent come from pure sciences, 8 per cent from management‑related courses and 4 per cent from the arts, with the remainder bringing specialised qualifications in fields such as agriculture, horticulture, pharmacy, law, journalism, fashion technology, dentistry, hotel and tourism management, and shipping.
Seventy‑five per cent of the entire cohort arrive with prior work experience. Within the MBA programme, 72 per cent are experienced hires, while in MBA‑BA, everyone has at least a year of industry exposure. For the MBA class specifically, 4 per cent have under a year of experience, 19 per cent have one to two years, 43 per cent have two‑to‑three years, and 6 per cent exceed the three‑year mark; the MBA‑BA group distributes across one‑to‑two years (49%), two‑to‑three years (36%) and three to four years (15%).
Sectoral representation is equally broad, led by information technology, engineering and industrial roles, banking and financial services, and consulting, with strong showings from retail and FMCG, education and ed‑tech, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, sales and marketing, e‑commerce, legal services, telecommunications and several niche domains.
In terms of geographical diversity, the batch comes from almost all states and union territories of India, including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In terms of state of domicile, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh account for 13 per cent and 12 per cent of the incoming batch, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Gujarat.