The Indian Institutes of Management, the Indian Institutes of Technology in Mumbai, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Roorkee, and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore have decided to use the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2011 as part of student selection process for programmes leading to the Masters degree in business administration and management, for the academic year 2012-13.
The joint management entrance test (JMET), previously used for admission by the IITs and IISc, stands discontinued. A recent review revealed that the relatively recent JMET is not so different from the CAT. The effort to organise the JMET each year seemed enormous, even though only about 40,000 candidates took it, on an average, each 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 into the IITs and IISc will minimise the test preparation and financial burden on candidates,” said professor LS Ganesha, former head of the department of management, IIT Madras.
“CAT is an ideal fit for IITs as it is a well-evolved, established, standardised and widely accepted, as an entrance examination 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 highly regarded national institutions like the IITs,” he added.
Welcoming this move, professor Janakiraman Moorthy, CAT 2011 convener, 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.”
CAT 2011 will be held over a 20-day window from October 22 to November 18, 2011, across 36 cities. Online registration opened on August 17, and will be available until September 28. Prometric, a trusted provider of market-leading test development and test delivery solutions, is IIMs’ partner in developing and delivering CAT 2011.
For more details on CAT 2011, including the list of non-IIM institutions registered to use CAT 2011 scores, visit www.catiim.in.
