Bringing relief to thousands of MBA aspirants seeking seats under the government quota, the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to have another testing window of the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) in May.
AICTE made CMAT the only gateway to MBA admissions under government quota from the coming academic year, instead of the State-administered Postgraduate Common Entrance Test (PGCET).
The Karnataka Examinations Authority had put in a request to the AICTE to hold another test as only 3,000 students had applied for CMAT-2. The AICTE is conducting two CMATs — one was held in September–October last year, and another is scheduled for this week. Both had elicited poor response from students in the State, who were expecting PGCET for admissions to MBA.
Speaking to The Hindu , S.S. Mantha, chairman, AICTE, said the council had considered the request from the Karnataka government and decided to grant another testing window for students who will not be able to write CMAT-2 scheduled from February 21 to 25. The registration for CMAT-2 ended on January 13.
“A test will be conducted sometime around mid-May for students in Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh as the State governments had placed requests for this. During the [AICTE] council meeting recently, we decided to give another opportunity to students in these States to write the CMAT,” he said. The dates will be finalised and announced soon.
He clarified that this would not be a “third test”, but only another opportunity for those who were not able to apply for either CMAT-1 or CMAT-2.
As of today, there are about 24,500 MBA seats under government quota in 436 colleges in the State. Students who do not attempt CMAT will have to wait a year if they want a government MBA seat. Last year, close to 19,000 students had appeared for the PGCET conducted by the KEA.
‘No postponement’
Mr. Mantha also allayed fears over CMAT-2 being affected by the Bharat bandh called on February 20 and 21. There was no change of dates “as of now”, he said.
