XLRI is all set to increase the PM&IR seats to 120 from the 2009 session:

The ever-increasing demand for its personnel management and industrial relations (PMIR) course has prompted the XLRI School of Business and Human Resource to double the number of seats.

At present, XLRI’s flagship course has room for 60 students, but from the next academic session, beginning June 2009, it will house as many as 120 business enthusiasts.

XLRI director Father E. Abraham said students and representatives of top-notch corporate houses were making a beeline for the PMIR course, which is the oldest and the most prestigious among the institute’s teaching programmes. Though business-oriented, it emphasises on understanding human values.

Abraham said the institute had sought a stamp of approval from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on seat increase last year, and it was cleared recently. “Admission was then in the last stage. So, we can only make room for more students from the next academic session,” he said.

Officials said the school was developing infrastructure to make room for 120 students. New faculty members would also be appointed soon.

Interestingly, the XLRI had increased the number of seats in the business management stream in 2005, but the demand for the course has gone up further. Even MNCs are making a beeline to rope in XLRI students. Last year’s recruitment record shows that each student in the PMIR stream had two offers to choose from.

“The demand has exceeded the supply. In fact, we have had to turn down offers from some of the elite recruiters because we had no students to give them,” Jeevan Kumar, secretary of XLRI’s placement committee, said, explaining the reason behind the decision to increase PMIR seats