More Indians for GMAT

The number of GMAT-takers in the country has risen by 25 per cent in a three-year span.

August 03, 2014 04:39 pm | Updated 06:54 pm IST

The highest number of Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) exams was delivered in India in 2013. As of June 2014, in India, the GMAT exam was being accepted for admissions at 235 programs offered at 112 business schools. In fact, the increase in the number of GMAT takers from India over the years — from 2010 to 2013 — is 25 per cent.

In an interview to The Hindu Education Plus, Gaurav Srivastava, director, market development, South East Asia, Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), throws light on the scenario in management education today in India and across the world.

Management education in India is witnessing a drop in quality and enrolments, in addition to placements, barring in the top institutes such as the IIMs. Why is this happening?

The quality of education, enrolments and placements is not dropping. In fact, we feel that Indian aspirants are becoming increasingly aware of various newer avenues that they can explore. However, we feel that the quality can be further enhanced if the issue of having numerous assessments in the Indian management education can be resolved. As the industry is highly fragmented, there are a number of assessments that a candidate needs to undergo, which results in candidates having to decide on the school even before being aware of their own capability of studying at that particular school.

What is the global scenario?

Globally, the management education market has matured with time, which, in turn, has made the process easy for aspirants. The market is not fragmented as it allows you to take a common test, say GMAT, and on basis of the scores, a school that fits one’s capability can be selected. GMAT, since the beginning, has been built around the idea of testing a candidate's ability to succeed in a business school environment. It would be good to replicate this process in India, as this will facilitate colleges to select candidates on the basis their capability, and, in turn, allow the candidates to succeed in the environment.

Has the number of takers for GMAT in India increased?

India’s emergence as a preferred destination for graduate management education is well demonstrated by the significant increase in score-sending by GMAT takers to Indian business schools. GMAT acceptance in India has increased over the past five years and at present, over 112 business schools in India accept the GMAT for some of their flagship management programmes.

Are more students heading abroad for management education?

Yes, we have seen an increase in the number of Indian candidates heading abroad for higher education. There are a couple of factors that have contributed towards this, some of which are the lure of a brighter future, revival of the U.S. economy, reduction in the cost differential between studying in India vis-à-vis abroad, wide availability of student loans and an increase in disposable income of Indian parents, who, in turn, fund a part of the candidate’s tuition fees.

An increase in the awareness levels of Indian candidates has also played a part, so while U.S. programmes received the majority of GMAT score reports from Indian citizens, the proportional share of score reports sent to U.S. programmes declined from 56 per cent in the test year (TY) 2009 to 52 per cent in TY 2013. However, an increasing number of Indian citizens’ score reports went to other study destinations abroad such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada and Spain.

Have there been any changes in the format of GMAT?

There are two changes that have been introduced.

Integrated Reasoning : The GMAT had introduced a new section called Integrated Reasoning (IR) in 2012. The addition of this new section was undertaken in order to gauge a candidate's ability to interpret and analyse different types of information and evaluate outcomes.

Score Preview : While taking the GMAT, candidates will now be able to preview their unofficial scores before deciding whether to report them to schools or cancel them. This new score reporting feature is available to all test-takers at all 600 test centres around the world that administer the GMAT exam.

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