IIMs to Continue with CAT for the 2005-06 Session

The six IIMs and some other premier institutes, which follow the CAT score, have decided to go ahead with their old exam regime for selection of students for the 2005-06 session, since they have not received any alternative orders from the HRD ministry in this regard. The decision was taken by the admission committees of the six IIMs on Thursday after a two-day meeting at Goa to decide the pattern of CAT.

Despite former HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi's order to replace CAT by a single entrance exam for all management institutes in the country, the current Arjun Singh's ministry has not yet worked out an alternative exam to replace CAT. The ministry is, in fact, now talking of five different types of entrance tests, of which CAT could be one.

IIMs, which had built their brand on CAT among other things, are only two happy to continue with the exam. CAT incidentally has been rated as the most difficult MBA entrance test in the world by the Economist Intelligence 2003 Survey. The admission process for the next academic session at the Indian B-schools will soon be in full swing with advertisements for CAT applications likely to be released within a month.

If the government finalizes its decision to retain CAT, it would be the next best news for IIMs after the fee-cut roll back.

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