Admission Process/ CriteriaHome| Doctoral Program (PhD) | Admissions | Admission Process/ Criteria

PhD Program of the Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam (IIMV) is a research-intensive doctoral program aimed at imparting high-quality training in research. IIMV’s PhD Program aims primarily at training prospective scholars to excel in their chosen areas of research through high-quality publications. This Program would also groom scholars to be highly skilled teachers.

IIMV offers specialization in the following areas for the 2026 batch:

• • Decision Sciences
    
  • Economics & Social Sciences
  • Entrepreneurship
    
  • Finance & Accounting
  • Information Systems
    
  • Marketing
  • Organizational Behaviour & Human Resource Management
    
  • Production and Operations Management
  • Public Policy
  • Strategy

Students are expected to complete the program within 5 years.

Candidates should have

• • A Master's Degree (bachelor’s degree obtained in 10+2+3 pattern, followed by a master’s degree) or a Post Graduate Diploma (2 years) in any discipline, with at least 55*# percent marks in the bachelor’s as well in the master’s degrees.

                    (OR)

• • A professional qualification like CA, ICWA, CS with at least 50*# percent marks and B. Com/Degree with 55*# percent marks

                   (OR)

• 4 year / 8 semesters bachelor’s degree (10+2+4 pattern) with at least 6.5 CGPA or equivalent.
  

* The percentage of marks obtained by the candidate would be calculated based on the practice as followed by the respective University/Institution. In the case of grades / CGPA, the conversion to percentage of marks would be based on the procedure as certified by the respective University/ Institution. If any University/Institution confirms that there is no 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.

# Five percent marks relaxation is given to SC, ST, and PwD candidates.

The above qualification should be from any of the Universities, or other educational institutions, incorporated by an act of the Parliament or State legislature in India; or declared to be deemed as a University under section 3 of UGC Act, 1956; or, recognized by the Ministry of HRD (MoE), Government of India.

Candidates who are in the final year of their qualifying Programs that would make them eligible can also apply. Such candidates, if selected, will be allowed to join the Program provisionally only if they submit a certificate latest by Registration Date** from the Principal / Head of the Department / Registrar or Director of the University / Institute (issued on or before Registration Date ** stating that they have appeared for the examinations (including practical examinations) in all the subjects required for obtaining the Master's / Bachelor's degree/equivalent qualification. Their admission will be confirmed only when they submit the mark sheet and the certificate of having passed the Master's / Bachelor's degree / equivalent qualification referred to in the certificate issued by Principal / Registrar of their college / Institute. The deadline for submission of the marks sheet and the Certificate is December 31, 2026. Please note that those candidates who have applied based on their master’s degree will have to meet the 55% marks stipulation, and those who have applied based on their bachelor's degree (10+2+4 pattern) will have to meet the 6.5 CGPA or equivalent stipulation. Non-fulfillment of these conditions will automatically result in the cancellation of the provisional admission.

Mere fulfilment of qualifications does not entitle an applicant to be shortlisted for personal interview. Also, if a candidate fails to participate in any stage of the admission process, they will no longer be considered for admission to the PhD program at IIM Visakhapatnam.

IIMV is committed to providing admissions to persons from different social and economic backgrounds. The PhD Program at IIM Visakhapatnam has seats reserved for Indian nationals belonging to certain categories. The categories and the extent of reservation effective for PhD 2026 are: 15% of the seats of Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates; 7.5% for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates; 27% for Other Backward Classes candidates belonging to the “Non-Creamy” layer (NC-OBC); 5% seats are reserved for Persons with Disabilities (PwD) within each category and 10% seats are reserved for Economically Weaker Sections (EWSs).

For the purpose of being considered for reservations, the applicable Central Government list as on the last date of submission of applications (31 January 2026– 15:00 IST) ** shall be binding. No subsequent changes will be effective for PhD 2026. The candidates claiming admissions in the reserved categories need to also note the eligibility requirements carefully before applying. It should be noted that while it is the endeavor of IIMV that the candidates belonging to SC/ST/PwD/NC-OBC/EWSs categories join the Program, they have to meet the minimum eligibility criteria and a certain minimum level of performance to be considered for the admission process.

Candidates require a valid test score, from any one of the acceptable tests for the area(s) of specialization they are applying to, as shown in the following table.

1. UGC Subjects: Economics / Rural Economics /Co-operation / Demography / Development Planning/Development Studies / Econometrics/ Applied Economics / Development Economics / Business Economics.

Management (including Business Admn. Mgt./Marketing / Marketing Mgt. / Industrial Relations and Personnel Mgt. / Personnel Mgt. / Financial Mgt. /Co-operative Management)

Defence and Strategic Studies/ Population Studies/ Electronic Science/ Environmental Sciences

2. UGC Subjects: Economics / Rural Economics / Cooperation / Demography / Development Studies / Development Planning / Econometrics / Development Economics / Business Economics.

Population Studies

3. UGC Subjects: Economics/ Sociology/ Social work/ Commerce/ Defence and Strategic Studies/ Labour welfare/Personnel management/ Law/ Mass communication and journalism/ Social medicine and community health/ Computer science and applications/ Environmental science/ International and area studies/ Electronic science/ Tourism administration and Management/ Public administration.

Management (including Business Admn. Mgt./Marketing / Marketing Mgt. /Industrial Relations and Personnel Mgt. / Personnel Mgt. / Financial Mgt. /Co-operative Management).

4. UGC Subjects: Commerce/ Management (including Business Admn. Mgt./Marketing / Marketing Mgt. /Industrial Relations and Personnel Mgt. / Personnel Mgt. / Financial Mgt. /Co-operative Management).

5. UGC Subjects: All subjects, CSIR (NET) All subjects.

6. UGC Subjects: Commerce/ Mass Communication / Psychology/ Management (including Business Admn. Mgt./Marketing / Marketing Mgt. /Industrial Relations and Personnel Mgt. / Personnel Mgt. / Financial Mgt. /Co-operative Management).
7. UGC Subjects:Anthropology/ Indian Culture/ Indian Knowledge System/ Philosophy/ Psychology/ Public Administration/ Social Work/ Sociology/ Tourism Administration and Management/ Women Studies.

Labour Welfare / Personnel Management / Industrial Relations/ Labour and SocialWelfare / Human Resource Management/ Management (including Business Admn. Mgt./Marketing / Marketing Mgt. /Industrial Relations and Personnel Mgt. / Personnel Mgt. / Financial Mgt. /Co-operative Management).

8. UGC Subjects:Management (including Business Admn. Mgt./Marketing / Marketing Mgt. /Industrial Relations and Personnel Mgt. / Personnel Mgt. / Financial Mgt. /Co-operative Management).

Mathematical Sciences/ Environmental Sciences/ Computer Science and Applications/ Economics

CSIR (NET) in Mathematical Sciences, Life Science, Earth Science, Physical Science and Chemical Science.

9. UGC and CSIR Subjects: All Subjects

10.  UGC (JRF) Subjects: Candidates applying with UGC must qualify for JRF

Management (including Business Admn. Mgt./Marketing / Marketing Mgt. /Industrial Relations and Personnel Mgt. / Personnel Mgt. / Financial Mgt. /Co-operative Management).

All candidates should mandatorily provide the test score, which should be valid till 31 January 2026 (15:00 IST) **, while submitting the application. 

• Applicants opting for GMAT or GRE should upload a copy of their official GMAT scores along with the application. Applicants who have not received the official scorecard, should upload the TEST TAKER COPY along with the application, but submit the OFFICIAL SCORECARD before the interviews.
• Candidates should get their GMAT scores officially reported to the Institute using the code: NF 1-2C-79.
• Candidates should get their GRE scores officially reported to the Institute using the code: 4424

Applicants must pay an fee of Rs. 500/- while filling the application form in the ‘payment’ tab. However, candidates belonging to NC-OBC, EWS, SC, ST, PwD, Women, and Transgender are exempted from paying the application fee.

Selection

Based on the information provided by the applicants, selected candidates will be shortlisted (on the recommendation of the respective areas) and called to Visakhapatnam for an interview.

Offline Interviews are expected to be held in the third week of April 2026**.

Candidates will be admitted to the Program based on a combination of multiple parameters, as specified by the respective areas. Parameters may include the applicant's performance in GMAT/GRE, CAT/GATE/ UGC-JRF (NET) score, past academic performance, interview performance, etc.

If a candidate didn’t appear for any of the admission process, then his/her candidature will not be considered for admission.

Candidates selected for admission are required to attend an Orientation and Preparatory Program which is expected to be scheduled during the last week of June 2026**. Registration for the Program will be in the last week of June 2026**.

We strongly encourage candidates seeking careers in academics to apply.

Financial Support^#

• • Stipend will be paid at par with the UGC norms i.e., Rs.37,000/- per month for the 1st two years and Rs. 42,000/- per month from the third year onwards.
  • Contingency Grant will be paid 1,30,000/-,(for the UGC-sponsored students, the differential amount will be paid).
  • HRA will be paid at par with UGC norms.
  • Accommodation will be provided at Institute.
  • International Conference grants of up to Rs.3,00,000/- and National Conference grants of up to Rs. 60,000/- are available for accepted papers, subjected to prior approval. The International conference grant can be used as national conference grant and vice versa.
  • Rs.50,000/- per publication or acceptance thereof in Financial Times (FT) 50, UT Dallas 24 or Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) - A* with Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) Chair and/or Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) Member and
  • Rs.25,000/- per publication in Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC)- A with Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) Chair and/or Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) Member 
    

Online applications need to be filled out at the Admissions page of the IIM Visakhapatnam website. You have to make sure that all the desired attachments are uploaded. Please verify your completed online application before submitting the same. The last date for submission of application is 31 January , 2026 (15:00 IST) **, along with the necessary enclosures mentioned in the application form. Please note that candidates can apply to a maximum of two areas of specialization.

**All of these are tentative dates

The admission criteria for the PhD 2026 batch may be change before the declaration of results. This admission process is applicable for the PhD 2026 admissions cycle only. IIMV reserves the right to change/modify any part of the process, with due notice, at any stage of the admission process. Any dispute concerning Admissions for the PhD 2026 batch would be subject to the jurisdiction of the competent courts within the territorial jurisdiction of the city of Visakhapatnam only.