First it was the business schools of the Indian Institutes of Technology that scrapped the Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET) in favour of the Common Admission Test (CAT). Then came Delhi University’s Faculty of Management Studies. Are more expected to go the CAT way and is all this a plan to get into a single-test mode? How are the entrance tests owned by the deemed universities and other All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)-approved colleges doing, given the surge of b-schools going for CAT. PaGaLGuY spoke to some of these b-schools. Here is what they had to say.
All India Management Associations’ Management Aptitude Test (MAT)
Dr Hari Krishna Maram, council member of AIMA, says, There is a definite move towards the single entrance exam. But that will take a long time, maybe three years from now. In the meantime, exams like the MAT and the CAT will continue to be popular because of their sheer test-taking numbers. The approximate number of the MAT candidates in a year amounts to around 3.1 lakhs while around 2.4 lakh candidates appear for the CAT.” Maram is sure that whatever happens MAT is here to stay. About 232 institutes are accepting the MAT held earlier this month.
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi
LD Mago, the registrar of IIFT, is clear on the institute’s stand towards the possibility of a single entrance exam. We will not move to the CAT, he says categorically. Ours is not a general management course, and we will continue to conduct our own exam. Everybody does not perform the same way in every test, that’s because every test is different. Commenting on the recent move by DU to scrap the FMS entrance test, he said, FMS will erode its brand image by scrapping the test. Delhi University is not thinking about FMS, it is just one fraction of their activities, but we are prepared to devote all our resources in staff and faculty to conduct the exam. On being asked whether the paper being leaked is a fear of an institute conducting its own exam, he said, We have been conducting the test since 1971 and it has never leaked, but the CAT paper has leaked.
In January this year, IIFT had sent a letter to the HRD ministry requesting that it be considered as the nodal body to conduct the entrance exam for all the country’s international business programs. This was a reaction to December 2010’s AICTE circular which sought to allow only the CAT, MAT and state government entrance exams for PGDM admissions. IIFT, whose deadline for applications passed by on 5 September, is still awaiting the ministry’s response. The paper for this year’s test has already been sent to the government press for printing and the test is scheduled for November 27.
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies NMAT
On being questioned about the possibility of a single entrance test, NMIMS admissions chairperson Dr Bala Krishnamoorthy said, A lot depends on the credibility of the body conducting the test, and it will take a long time to bring all b-schools under the broad umbrella of a single test.” She also said that the single test phenomenon had been in the pipeline of the governing and regulatory bodies for more than a decade. For now NMAT continues as it is.
Symbiosis International University’s SNAP
Commenting on the possibility of a single entrance test, Dr Vivek Sane, director of Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune said, Can there be one common interview for all? Similarly there have to be at least a few major national level tests. He also added. There are values attached to every institute and Symbiosis has its own brand. Although SIBM started as a part of Pune University, it was in 2006 that Symbiosis International University started conducting SNAP for admissions to all the 14 management institutes under it. We consider it as a common admission test. SNAP will be conducted on December 18 and the results will be out on January 12.
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
An official from the Centre of Human Resources Management and Labour Relations at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) told PaGaLGuY about its stance. We are a sociology institution, not a commercial one, and we will not like a common admission test, he said. TISS is known for a social sciences orientation that underlies the courses it offers. So far the government has not told us anything but even if it insists, we will conduct our own exam. The TISS test is unique as it has two papers, the first one is a common test for all the 17 courses on offer and the second one for the specialization one chooses.
Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad
MICA, known for its MICAT exam, will be accepting the CAT scores as a first cut-off and then conduct the MICAT for further elimination in the coming season. It is after two years that it is accepting the CAT this year and it is the same controversial December AICTE directive (see link below) that led them to accept it. Shubhra Gaur, the admissions chairperson of the institute, made it clear that this year the MICAT will not include verbal and quantitative ability sections since the CAT would have already assessed that. Instead, it will measure abilities that are considered more important for the communications industry. The MICAT has been designed, she says, as a comprehensive test to asses abilities like creative potential and divergent thinking. But will the institutes get the kind of students they want through a single entrance exam? Single entrance test may not serve the purpose of sectoral management institutes, she said. But the AICTE permits the use of additional tests and hence the kind of students MICA wants will not be affected.
Goa Institute of Management
The Goa Institute of Management is sticking to Xavier’s Labour Relations Institute’s XAT for this year, but Prof Rakesh Srivastava from the institute informed PaGaLGuY that they might consider accepting both the CAT and the XAT scores from next year. Another source also added that this is to increase diversity for the kind of students admitted. The decision to include ATMA as one of the tests last year did not go down too well for the institute because not many students applied through it. On being asked if a single test would be a good thing, Srivastava said, “Apart from the government’s arm-twisting, a single exam is better than all kinds of exams floating around.”
AIMS Test for Management Admissions (ATMA)
Dr Prabir Pal, member of the AIMS board and its ex-president said that if the government comes down too heavily on the deemed universities and the institutes, then they will have to also move to one exam. Thanks to the AICTE circular, there was a 70% drop in the number of test-takers last time,” he said. Pal is of the opinion that only tests that have a large enough number of takers, should be allowed to exist, as they give students of various aptitudes a greater chance and choice while applying. So according to him, the CAT, MAT and ATMA can co-exist as they are for different standards of students. But too many tests are stressful for the students, both financially and mentally, he added.
For next year’s admissions, the ATMA is being revamped to make it more accessible. We are starting the on-the-spot examinations for ATMA, said Pal. In this system, starting from October this year, the students will be able to go to the partner b-school that is accepting the test and take the exam on-the-spot by paying the required amount. The plan is to make it a daily test, but to start off, it will be a monthly one. “With the online monthly test, we expect about one lakh students to appear for the test,” Pal added.
Xaviers Labour Relations Institute’s XAT
XLRI is backing AIMS in its legal battle against the AICTE’s December circular. For now the Supreme court has issued a stay order on the AICTE circular and the tests are to continue. The institute’s officials do not want to comment on the matter, but told PaGaLGuY that Fr Abraham’s opinion in a previous article reflects their current point of view well.
SS Mantha, the AICTE director, was not available for comment, despite repeated attempts to get in touch with him. But it seems unlikely that the changes will be that sudden or any time soon. The HRD ministry is aware of the complexity of making such a sweeping change in the higher education system. Minister of State for Human Resource Development, D. Purandeswari, had acknowledged this in a written reply to a question put to her in the Rajya Sabha on 19 August. “While it is ideal to have a unified admission test for admission to higher education for all students, it is a great challenge, considering the huge diversity of education systems in the country, ” she wrote. “Compelling the state owned and controlled and privately owned institutions is ruled out in view of federal nature of our polity and due to the fact that education is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution. It is impossible to mandate the states and colleges to adopt such a uniform system and therefore states need lot of persuation.”