When I was thinking about all the chaos that has happened post the CAT (common admission test) 2010 results, I was wondering who would benefit from such a situation.
The Bschools are clueless as are the students, and the coaching classes are shivering at the thought of what 'rabbit' is going to come out of the CAT magic-hat.
One things that struck me was the opportunity that this chaos presents to other similar testing service like the GMAC who conduct GMAT. For the first time in the history of bschool admissions in India, there is this opportunity to propound the GMAT test to business schools, and Universities who would probably (proactively) look at this test providing them with quality applicants. This is predicated on the argument that amongst the 2000 odd business schools of MBA institutions, atleast 50-60 top ones are no longer bothered about the number of applications sold and application-form-revenues. Also, there would have been opportunities for students from other countries (maybe neighbours as well) to study in the programs offered by our bschools.
Another fact is that the majority of students actually intend to get into these business schools (top50-60) anyways. So end of the day, there wasn't going to be any issue with application numbers or revenue.
GMAT is expensive, but for students who take the CAT seriously and are now at the peril of losing their faith in themselves, GMAT would be the savior.
So for one very brief moment, the stage was all set for the GMAC authorities to approach the best institutions in India and then build up the system for the admission process of these bschools.
Trouble came in the form of a sudden change in AICTE guidelines or regulations. It was such a sudden thing, that even bschools have been taken by surprise. The new guidelines on admission process from AICTE stated that there would now be only CAT and MAT test scores available to Institutions who would come under the purview of AICTE. To make matters worse, there is a highly debated clause mentioning that admission process involving GD and PI will now be conducted by state regulated bodies (like the DTE in Maharashtra) for all colleges in that state offering PGDBM.
This took away any chances for bschools signing up for any other test (other than CAT) like GMAT, and also took away the admission process from them. It is to be noted here that last year (after the CAT debacle), institutions like Great Lakes conducted their own test. Same happened for quite many of them.
This whole rush to save the face of India's most famous entrance test today (yes, its the CAT), is difficult to fathom. Why should such mindless regulations be brought in to save something that needs to find answers from within? Why should the scope of top-grading the admission process and the intake being stymied by regulations and steps like these?
The license-raj isn't dead. it exists and the sad part is it is hurting the growth of higher education in India. I am not aware of any such regulation in US or UK against whom we feel our systems should be compared and developed.
Yes, it is a loss for GMAT, but thats not the point. This entire episode has shown the world that regulatory bodies can actually become real-time bottlenecks in the growth story in any sector in India. All that is left for the hapless bschools is probably the "jugaad".
The Bschools are clueless as are the students, and the coaching classes are shivering at the thought of what 'rabbit' is going to come out of the CAT magic-hat.
One things that struck me was the opportunity that this chaos presents to other similar testing service like the GMAC who conduct GMAT. For the first time in the history of bschool admissions in India, there is this opportunity to propound the GMAT test to business schools, and Universities who would probably (proactively) look at this test providing them with quality applicants. This is predicated on the argument that amongst the 2000 odd business schools of MBA institutions, atleast 50-60 top ones are no longer bothered about the number of applications sold and application-form-revenues. Also, there would have been opportunities for students from other countries (maybe neighbours as well) to study in the programs offered by our bschools.
Another fact is that the majority of students actually intend to get into these business schools (top50-60) anyways. So end of the day, there wasn't going to be any issue with application numbers or revenue.
GMAT is expensive, but for students who take the CAT seriously and are now at the peril of losing their faith in themselves, GMAT would be the savior.
So for one very brief moment, the stage was all set for the GMAC authorities to approach the best institutions in India and then build up the system for the admission process of these bschools.
Trouble came in the form of a sudden change in AICTE guidelines or regulations. It was such a sudden thing, that even bschools have been taken by surprise. The new guidelines on admission process from AICTE stated that there would now be only CAT and MAT test scores available to Institutions who would come under the purview of AICTE. To make matters worse, there is a highly debated clause mentioning that admission process involving GD and PI will now be conducted by state regulated bodies (like the DTE in Maharashtra) for all colleges in that state offering PGDBM.
This took away any chances for bschools signing up for any other test (other than CAT) like GMAT, and also took away the admission process from them. It is to be noted here that last year (after the CAT debacle), institutions like Great Lakes conducted their own test. Same happened for quite many of them.
This whole rush to save the face of India's most famous entrance test today (yes, its the CAT), is difficult to fathom. Why should such mindless regulations be brought in to save something that needs to find answers from within? Why should the scope of top-grading the admission process and the intake being stymied by regulations and steps like these?
The license-raj isn't dead. it exists and the sad part is it is hurting the growth of higher education in India. I am not aware of any such regulation in US or UK against whom we feel our systems should be compared and developed.
Yes, it is a loss for GMAT, but thats not the point. This entire episode has shown the world that regulatory bodies can actually become real-time bottlenecks in the growth story in any sector in India. All that is left for the hapless bschools is probably the "jugaad".
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