At 2.32 lakh, the registrations for this year’s Common Admission Test (CAT) for admissions to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and other leading B-schools are reportedly at a seven-year high, according to office of the convenor of CAT 2016. The registrations for CAT 2016 closed on Tuesday.
A release from the IIM-Bangalore (IIMB), which is conducting CAT this year, said the number of registrations for CAT 2015 was 2.18 lakh. The number of registrations this year is highest since 2010.
Female candidates
The number of female candidates applying for CAT too has seen a marginal increase. “While we still have a majority of male candidates (67 per cent), the percentage of female candidates has marginally increased by one per cent compared to last year, which is a good sign, but not good enough,” Rajendra K. Bandi, Convenor, CAT 2016 was quoted as saying.
But he added that if one looks at the total increase in the applications compared to last year, which is close to 14,000, almost half of these additional applications have come from female candidates. “This is a positive sign. That means, the increase of female candidates is more than the increase of male candidates,” he explained.
Persons with disabilities
The number of applications from persons with disabilities (PWD) has also seen an increase this time - from 901 to 938. “In this category, the percentage of male candidates is very high (more than 80 per cent), which is something to think about. Our social systems need to encourage female PWD students. However, on the positive side, the percentage of female PWD candidates has increased from 14.76 per cent to 17.48 per cent. Small positive steps, but miles to go on this,” Prof. Bandi added.
CAT 2016 will be conducted on December 4, and the results are expected in the second week of January 2017.
