CMAT for admission to AICTE approved MBA

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has made it mandatory for all AICTE-approved management institutions and university departments offering AICTE-approved management courses to admit students on the basis of the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT). CMAT is being conducted as a single-window management entrance exam for all management institutes across India.

At present, there are 4,300 B-schools in India. About 3,700 management institutes offer MBA programmes and have an overall student intake of four lakh. Many management schools had been using CAT, MAT, and state-run management entrance exams for admitting students. CMAT will save the time and money of students, doing away with the need to appear for multiple exams.

Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have accepted CMAT scores for admission to their management institutions and have scrapped state-run management entrance exams.

The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Maharashtra has decided to do away with Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to the two-year MBA or MMS Programmes in the State with effect from next year. The Rajasthan Management Aptitude Test (RMAT) has also been scrapped. The Uttar Pradesh State Entrance Exam (UPSEE) conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) and Madhya Pradesh Management Entrance Test (MP-MET) have also been discontinued in favour of CMAT.

State governments can conduct central counseling on the basis of detailed CMAT merit list they receive. In case of no central counseling, AICTE-approved institutes or university departments can conduct group discussions and interviews at their level.

Private business schools, however, fear that CMAT will not be able to reach students in remote areas across the country.

Some of the private institutes not accepting CMAT scores for admission next year are:

• Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH)
• Institute of Financial Management & Research (IFMR), Chennai
• Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Nagpur and Hyderabad campuses
• International Management Institute (IMI)
• Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), Chennai
• Mudra Institute of Communication (MICA), Ahmedabad
• National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE)
• S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai
• Symbiosis International University, Pune
• TA Pai Management Institute, Manipal
• XLRI, Jamshedpur

Students interested in appearing for CMAT 2013, which is to be conducted in February next year, can register on the official AICTE website from November 1, 2012, to January 2, 2013.