IIMB to launch on-campus UG programme in August, 2026

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) is finally launching its on-campus undergraduate programme in August, 2026 in its new campus near Jigani. A national level entrance test will be conducted for the courses in December 2025.  

The institute will be offering two four-year courses – Bachelor of Science (BSc) Honours (Hons) in Data Science with a minor degree in Economics and Business, BSc (Hons) in Economics with minor degree in Data Science and Business. In line with the National Education Police (NEP), the programme will have an exit option at the end of three years where students can graduate with a BSc degree instead of BSc (Hons). The programme has been introduced with an aim to fill the gap of high-quality undergraduate education in India. 

The first intake will be 40 students for each course, a total of 80 students. By 2031, the Insitute aims to reach a capacity of 640 and in the long run, take-up to 2,000 students. The prorgamme will begin with 15 faculty members (recruitment has begun) and while the existing infrastructure in the new campus will be used in 2026, by 2027, the new infrastructure will start becoming available.

The fee for the courses has been fixed at ₹8.5 lakh per annum. 

The idea of this prorgamme was mooted about a decade ago and was proposed to the government of India as early as 2017. Rishikesha T. Krishnan, director of IIMB, said the setting up of the new campus was one of the reasons for the delay.  

“This is a very resource intensive programme. We had to think very carefully about the overall development of the campus, the kind of resourcing that is required. We also wanted to be absolutely sure about the viability of the whole thing before we jumped into it. So, there was some delay in reviewing all of that,” he said.  

Math mandatory for courses 

The entrance test for the courses can be taken by anyone who has finished their class 12 or PUC with mathematics being one of the subjects they studied. “Math is a requirement as both these courses need math,” Prof. Krishan said.  

Along with syllabus covered until class 12, the exam will also test the candidates’ logical reasoning, language and general knowledge.  

IIMB has also proposed Behavioural Sciences and Sustainability as the courses that can be introduced in the subsequent years. For these courses, mathematics will not be mandatory.  

Among the eight semesters, which will be conducted for 160 credit points (120 points in case of Bsc), internships are mandatory in the first three years. The courses will also have an international exchange programme. “We are in talks with a couple of schools abroad and we will finalise them soon. We will also tap into our existing robust base of over 100 schools,” said P.D. Jose, professor in charge of the new campus and professor of strategy, IIMB. 

Prof. Krishnan also informed that around 1,000 students had joined the three-year online BBA course which was introduced last year.