Hello Aspirant,

In IIM(Indian Institute of Management) academic diversity means that IIM  do not want  students of same background(All engineers) rather they wants students of Diverse academic background that means they want few students of Engineering background few of  management , medical , commerce etc , so that their batches  remains diverse and not monotonic.

They also give a little bit higher preference to student of non-engineering background as there are so many engineers applying and clearing for CAT exams.

Hope this helps.