'Why no IIM admitted any of these 80 candidates?'

Ipsita Sarkar Gupta | shiksha.com

Credibility of the Common Aptitude Test (CAT) has come under scrutiny, post the disclosure of 80 ‘inflated’ scorecards. In an exclusive interview to shiksha.com, directors of some top non-IIMs revealed why they are so angry and feeling cheated, while explaining the entire system and fraudulent admission process behind the act. These directors spoke to us on condition of anonymity.

After an anonymous tip off (informing about the scorecards of 80 candidates not in sync with the scores in master database), CAT 2012 convenor Professor SSS Kumar from Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Kozhikode registered a complaint against Web Weavers, the company that managed and hosted the CAT website. A few days later, all the IIMs issued a public disclaimer on their websites, informing about the discrepancy and disclosing the list of 80 candidates.

“We are deeply angered and frustrated over IIMs allowing this serious loophole in their system,” says a director, and goes on to explain the entire CAT score – admission process stage by stage –

1. Post the CAT exam, results are uploaded by the test taker Prometric on their master database
2. IIMs conduct their admission on the basis of scores on the master database
3. Since CAT is the selection criterion for most of the top B-Schools, the institutes obtain the scores from IIMs for a certain price (“It’s expensive,” quips another director)
4. IIMs distribute the CAT scores through a second channel, Web Weavers.

It is at the fourth stage of distributing the scores through Web Weavers, where scores of 80 candidates have been inflated.

“This is not about a technical glitch. I want to know why none of the IIMs gave admission to any of these 80 candidates. Seems like they were aware about it. Why were we notified so late?” questions the director.

Reiterating similar views, Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) director Dr Harivansh Chaturvedi says, “Why were we not informed about the marks goof-up? This is humiliating, insulting and harms the reputation of our institutes.”

These directors blame the use of second channel and the lack of vigilance of the IIMs. “Why do the IIMs deploy a second channel for distribution of the scores? Why can’t we procure the scores through the same system that IIMs use?” questions another director. “The tampering of scorecards has just come into view. God knows, how many candidates have gotten through the snag in the system!” he exclaims.

With the scandal under police investigation, an online forum reported that IIM – Kozhikode’s computers have been seized. When shiksha.com spoke to Professor Kumar, he refused to respond to any queries on phone but agreed to reply via mail. It’s been more than 48 hours (and two reminder requests), but no response has been received so far.

According to sources, CAT scores have been severely inflated. Candidates scoring 29 and 19 percentile as per the master database, have 99 percentile written on the scorecards obtained from Web Weavers.

“Who will compensate our losses? This is a consumer rights issue. The entire nation needs to ask this question to the guilty party,” says the first director.

According to reports, institutes who have admitted to being affected by the 80 tampered scores are FMS, IMT, BIMTECH, NITIE, and MDI. A CBI enquiry has been launched to investigate the matter.