IIM Udaipur will be granting a degree to its graduating students in the convocation to be held on 23-March. This is the first time that the graduating students will be awarded with a degree. The earlier batches were all awarded diplomas.

The change has come into effect courtesy passing of the IIM Act by Parliament on Dec 20, 2017. The act makes 20 IIMs an ‘Institution of National Importance’, like the IITs, NITs and AIIMS. This empowers the IIMs to grant degrees to students.

Earlier IIMs were separate entities registered under Societies Act. Since societies cannot award degrees, IIMs used to award diplomas to their graduates.

Not all IIMs are however granting degrees this year, as a matter of choice. IIM Lucknow and IIM Ranchi have, in their recently held convocations, granted Post graduate Diploma to their students while IIM Bangalore became the first IIM to grant MBA degree to its graduating batch.