Management institutes have also sought clarification on whether GMAT scores would be used for admitting students to PGDM courses.
Students and B-schools, confused over whether to apply or not for the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) to be conducted by AICTE in February 2012, can expect to get some clarity on the issue in the next 10 days. Education Promotion Society of India (EPSI), an association of B-schools, in a legal notice to AICTE has sought explanation from AICTE on the issue.
EPSI wants to know if CMAT will substitute only the state government examinations or other exams, including Common Admission Test (CAT), Management Aptitude Test (MAT), Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) and AIMS Test for Management (ATMA ).
B-schools have also sought clarification if Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores will be used for admitting students for next academic year. In the legal notification, B-schools say GMAT is not recognised for admissions to post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM) for 2012-13.
“We have given AICTE 10 days to reply to our notice. If they fail to do so, we will initiate appropriate legal action, including contempt of court,” said H Chaturvedi, director, Birla Institute of Management Technology, and alternate president, EPSI.
The legal notice comes on the back of an advertisement issued by AICTE, which, B-schools say, has confused them about what scores to accept to admit students for the next academic session. Most of the B-schools have already registered themselves for scores from existing four national tests: CAT, MAT, XAT and ATMA.
“AICTE released a new advertisement recently on CMAT, and this created a lot of confusion. A legal notice has already been served to AICTE. I hope for some clarification to move ahead. We have said that we cannot accept CMAT this time as our XAT registration admission process is already over. We will continue with XAT this year, and for next year it will depend on the SC judgment,” said E Abraham, director of Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur.
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A print advertisement by AICTE had said that CMAT scores would be used for allotting seats in PGDM institutes for 2012 admissions. CMAT will be held across 61 cities in the last week of February, 2012.
Apoorva Palkar, director of Sinhgad Institute of Management & Computer Application, Pune, says the institute, following the SC directive, will go ahead with ATMA, which is also scheduled for February 2012.
Early this year, EPSI, along with AIMS (Association of Indian Management Schools) and Jaipuria Group of Institutions, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court protesting against AICTE's notification issued on December 28, 2010, wherein AICTE announced the withdrawal of the autonomy of post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM) institutions with regard to admissions, curriculum framing, conducting the examinations and fixing of fee among others.
This July, the SC, in an interim relief to B-schools, allowed AICTE to conduct its own all India entrance test. B-schools say they are confused with AICTE's move. “We will wait for the SC judgment. There is still uncertainty prevailing,” adds Abraham.
The SC order dated July 26, 2011, stated: "The interim order will not come in the way of All India Council of Technical Education amending its Regulations (AICTE Approval Process Handbook) to introduce All India Entrance Examination for 2012-13 in place of state level examinations by the respective state governments."
S S Mantha, chairman, AICTE, said, “The regulatory body is only following the SC directive.”
However, Bharat Parmar, partner at Eduvisors, an education sector advisory services firm, believes that B-schools are over reacting as there is yet no official document that says CMAT is mandatory.
Industry players say AICTE is planning to make CMAT mandatory for all B-schools and believe that AICTE is using this tactic to get maximum number of students to take the examination. It remains to be seen what per cent of students seek admission to B-schools based on CMAT scores, as they, too, are confused what B-schools will accept the scores.