Non-engineers now almost equal to engineers in elite B-schools: What’s breaking the ‘engineering dominance’ in management?

Engineering and Management were often considered intertwined courses. Henceforth, the elite B-schools such as IIMs have long cherished the major footfall of engineers. The engineers reigned supreme in management classrooms for years; their numerical dominance was entrenched in the system, and non-engineers often seemed like outliers.

However, the picture is changing now. The monopoly of engineers on management schools is breaking. Today’s classrooms are seeing a surge in the participation of economists, accountants, and students hailing from commerce and humanities backgrounds. Their strengths are rising and nearly matching their engineering peers in elite MBA programmes. The statistics are unambiguous. At IIM-Indore, non-engineers now account for 55% of the 2025–27 batch.

IIM-Lucknow follows with just under 53%, and IIM-Ahmedabad has reached 50%, up sharply from 33% in just three years, the TNN reports suggest.While numbers depict the situation, the question that arises is: What factors are leading to a change in history and shattering the stronghold of engineering dominance?

The anatomy of change

The rise of non-engineers in India’s premier B-schools is not a coincidence; it is the result of deep structural shifts both in the pipeline of applicants and in the demands of management education.

Corporate demand for new skill setsThe 21st-century corporate world is not simply asking for number-crunchers; it wants managers who can communicate, collaborate, and create. Recruiters increasingly value critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and creativity, areas where non-engineers, trained in economics, commerce, and the humanities, often hold a natural edge.With the rise of the demands of these skills, the non-engineers are flooding to B-schools to fill in the skill gap.Conscious academic design by B-schoolsIt is not a coincidence or an accident. The top B-schools have consciously and deliberately restructured their admission architecture to foster and promote diversity. At IIM-Ahmedabad, director Bharat Bhasker told TNN, “The institute began introducing academic categories about a decade ago to ensure diversity. An increase in applications from non-engineers has led to a healthy balance in classrooms.”The idea is clear: A classroom that reflects multiple academic backgrounds generates richer discussions and produces leaders who are versatile, not one-dimensional.Rising aspirations of non-engineersFor long, management was perceived as the “natural next step” for engineers. But today, students from commerce, economics, and arts are seeing B-schools as their own turf, not someone else’s. At IIM-Lucknow, for instance, 268 of 507 students in the latest MBA cohort come from non-engineering backgrounds.

Director M.P. Gupta told TNN, “Commerce-related courses have attracted the most students.”The fact that commerce graduates are entering B-schools in record numbers shows a generational shift in how non-engineers view management as a career accelerator.Changing nature of business problemsWith the nature of work, the problems that businesses are facing are also altering their face. It is not solved by quantitative models alone.

Whether it is managing global supply chain disruptions, navigating ESG mandates, or leading diverse teams, the need for soft skills, cultural literacy, and systems thinking is paramount. B-schools are, in effect, mirroring this reality in their selection processes.A gender dimensionThe rise of non-engineers also overlaps with the growing presence of women in B-schools. At IIM-Indore’s 2025–27 batch, of the 270 non-engineers admitted, 179 are women.

Director of IIM Indore, Himanshu Rai said to TNN that, “At IIM-Indore, representation of non-engineers has risen steadily over five years.” Diversity in background is, in many cases, also translating into diversity in gender.

The end of an era, and the dawn of balance

This is not a data representation or mere statistics, but it implies toward major structural reordering of India’s B-schools. The engineering dominance in management classes is crumbling. It is getting substituted by a near-equal balance that brings forth pluralism and intellectual richness into classrooms.The engineer may no longer be the default face of India’s B-schools. The future belongs to a balanced mix, and therein lies the strength of the next generation of Indian management leaders.