I am new to the forum so I am not quite aware of where to place my query. I hope the moderators will help in placing it to the correct section.
My query goes like this:
I completed my graduation from IIT Bombay in Mechanical Engineering. In IIT Bombay we do not get percentage and we have a different mechanism of grading. This mechanism is called relative grading where we grade people out of 10. My CPI (Cumulative Performace Index) in 6.08 out of 10.
On converting CPI to percentage, IIT Bombay says that a CPI cannot be converted into percentage by any means and hence finding percentage equivalence of the CPI awarded by IIT Bombay is not possible.
I applied to Delhi School of Economics for MA economics course, where they have mentioned the following in their eligibility criteria:
“(i)B.A. (Hons.) Economics of the University of Delhi with 50% or more marks in the aggregate
(ii)B.A. (Hons.) / B.Sc. (Hons.) Economics of any other Indian University recognized by the University of Delhi with 50% or more marks in the aggregate. In the case of Universities where the B.A./B.Sc. (Hons.)
Economics degree includes courses other than Economics, the course shall be treated as an Honours course only if it contains at least 55% marks of the total marks in respect of papers in economics.
(iii)60% or more marks in Graduate/Post-graduate degree in any other subject from the University of Delhi or any Indian University recognized by the University of Delhi.”
I appied to Delhi School of Economics assuming that they will consider 6.08/10 as 60.8% in absence of any other criteria mentioned by them and as IIT Bombay does not gives any method to convert the CPI to percentage.
After attending 2 months of classes, I suddenly came to know that HOD and Academic office are planning to deregister me from the institute. On meeting them they gave me following reasons:
(i) By mentioning 60%, they meant they wanted people who graduate by getting first division and according to IIT Bombay people who get a CPI of more than 6.5 are first division
(ii) When I argued that there is no mention of division in the handbook for admission, they said that in that case I have to prove that a CPI of 6.08 is more than 60%
(iii) Also, Head of Department told me that everyone knows that in Indian University System 60% is considered as first class, so even if they have not mentioned first class explicitly in the handbook, it means the same and 60% marks that they have mentioned will be treated as first class.
My take on these issues is as follows:
(i) Academic office, IIT Bombay says that a CPI cannot be converted in percentage. Hence Delhi School of Economics can also not say that I am less than 60% and if they want to de-register me from the program, they have to give proper justification about how they ended up to a decision that 6.08 is less than 60%
(ii) The 2011 Admission Brochure of FMS (Faculty of Management Studies), page number 7, under the section “Eligibility Criteria for MBA (Full Time) Programme”, says that the candidates must have pursued at least a 3-year Bachelor's Degree Programme after twelve years of formal schooling. The candidates from Medicine, Engineering or Technology must have secured minimum aggregate marks of 60% or a CGPA of at least 6 on a scale of 10:
“Medicine, Engineering or Technology - 60% / CGPA of at least 6.00 in a scale of 10.00”
Hence, it can be deduced that for students of engineering background, Delhi University accepts a CPI of 6.00 on a scale of 10 to be equivalent to 60% marks.
References: https://www.fms.edu/OnlineRegistration/FMS_Admission_Brochure_2011.pdf
(iii) Since IIT Bombay itself says that a CPI cannot be converted to any percentage equivalence, hence we cannot conclude that a CPI of 6.08 is less than 60%. As with the case with all the IITs and IIMs, they do grading as Cumulative Performance Index on a scale of 4, 9 or 10. Only IIM Calcutta has started giving a percentage equivalence of CPI which they calculate by multiplying the obtained CPI with 100 and dividing by the maximum achievable CPI (which is 9 in the case of IIM Calcutta). Untill IIT Bombay comes up with a CPI coversion method, the one employed by IIM Calcuta seems most logical and relevant in all kinds of situations. So by the same method and general logic, a CPI of 6.08 on a scale of 10 should be considered as 60.8%.
Also, other reputed Indian Colleges and Universities, for admissions in their Post Graduation programmes employ the same procedure to convert CPI into percentage. CAT for example, in the eligibility criteria says:
“The percentage of marks obtained by the candidate in the bachelor’s degree would be calculated based on the practice followed by the university/institution from where the candidate has obtained the degree. In case the candidates are awarded grades/CGPA instead of marks, the conversion of grades/CGPA to percentage of marks would be based on the procedure certified by the university/ institution from where they have obtained the bachelor's degree. In case the university/ institution does not have any scheme for converting CGPA into equivalent marks, the equivalence would be established by dividing the candidate’s CGPA by the maximum possible CGPA and multiplying the result with 100.”
References: https://catiim.in/cat_eligibility.html
