Indore : All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which opens registration window in the first week of July every year for Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) held in September, has delayed the process indicating that the exam this year may be conducted in October.
If that happens then CMAT dates may clash with that of Common Admission Test (CAT) which will leave students at the receiving end.
More than two weeks of the July have passed without any clear indication from the AICTE when it is going to announce dates for CMAT, the gateway to the MBA colleges in the country.
It appears that AICTE has forgotten opening registration window of September CMAT which is surely cause delay in conduct of the exam.
CAT-2015 is proposed to be held in October. Candidates prefer appearing in CMAT in September as it is held just before CAT and IIFT entrance exams.
The delay in opening of the registration may not be so important if the CMAT is conducted in September like previous years. In case the test dates are carried over to October 2015 and clash with CAT 2015, the AICTE may not only lose substantial registration for the CMAT but also perplexed students.
“The CMAT should be held by the last week of September or in the first week of October. If delayed after that will hit students as they may not get enough time to prepare for CAT which has entirely different format of exam then that of CMAT,” said Amit Pal, an MBA aspirant.
So far CMAT has stood out as the second largest national level entrance examination for MBA/PGDM courses across the country and has been running close to XAT. If the CMAT Sep gets a clash of dates with CAT 2015, registrations for CMAT may dip and it may go down to 5th or 6th position after XAT, NMAT and IIFT.
Delay due to new chairman
It is understood that the delay in opening of registration window is casused due to change in guard at chairman office of AICTE. New Chairman of AICTE Dr Anil D Sahasrabudhe took the charge of the Council in the month of July. Therefore, the process to start registration got delayed. Sources in the AICTE said that despite the delay in announcement of registration, the CMAT will be held in September. They said that the registration window will open in three to four days. AICTE will provide 2 opportunities to appear in CMAT for admission session commencing in 2016; first in September 2015 and Second in February 2016. The better of two scores will be used for admission for PGDM/MBA batch 2016-18.
