The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have withdrawn the joint management entrance test (JMET) used for admitting students into the institute’s department of management studies and have replaced it with the common admission test (CAT).
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Roorkee, and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore will henceforth use CAT scores as part of the student selection process for MBA and M. Mgmt programmes from the 2012-13 academic year.
A recent review revealed that JMET was similar to CAT and the effort to organise JMET each year seemed enormous with just 40,000 candidates taking this test every year.
“The intersection of candidates who take both CAT and JMET in a single year is quite large. The decision to use CAT for admission to IITs and IISc will minimize the test preparation and financial burden on candidates. CAT is an ideal fit for IITs as it is a well evolved, established, standardized and widely accepted entrance exam for admission into PG programmes in management in India. It is also conceived and developed by the IIMs, which serve as the benchmark for management education in our country and in highly regarded national institutions like the IITs”, Prof. L S Ganesh, former HOD of management studies department at IIT Madras, said.
Welcoming this move, Prof Janakiraman Moorthy, CAT 2011 convenor said, “This is a major initiative that brings two premier higher education systems together. We anticipate that this will result in closer tie-ups and collaborative research work that will provide both sets of Institutions a competitive edge in the long run.”