BW Communities

CAT Among The Pigeons

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[A notification by All Indian Council Of Technical Education (AICTE) on 28 December sent tremors through the B-school fraternity. The council came up with an eight-point system of e-governance wherein admission to all PGDM (post-graduate diploma in management) courses shall be done through common entrance test such as CAT/MAT or examinations conducted by the state governments. Private B-schools such as XLRI, IMI and IMT Ghaziabad are calling the regulation a threat to their autonomy. The new regulation restricts XLRI and MICA from conducting their own examination for the new academic session. "The complete act is anti-liberalising and very limiting, the distinctness of XAT cannot be compared with CAT," says E. Abraham, director of XLRI Jamshedpur.   According to Association of Management Schools (AIMS), the new norms are  inconsistent with the right extended to the unaided professional colleges to evolve any fair and transparent method of selection, a right upheld by the Supreme Court. One of the major setbacks for B-schools is the forfeiting of their right to decide their programmes' fees. The notice says fees for all kinds of PGDM programmes shall be decided by AICTE. "The institutes may not be able to recover their full costs, and while they accept this, they may resort to other means of attracting money," says Rajan Saxena, vice-chancellor of Mumbai-based Narsee Monji Institute of Management, which is a deemed university and, hence, is protected from these regulations. The notification states that all PGDM programmes shall not be less than 24-month long and the admissions shall not start before 31 March. The programmes offered by B-schools including IIMs are typically of 21 months and the admission process for many B-schools start much before 31 March. "World over people are encouraged to accelerate their management learning by introducing various short-duration programmes," adds Saxena.   Academicians are also worried. "The AICTE circular is a massive problem for good standalone institutions such as XLRI and XIMB. These institutes can't seek accreditation from any university," says Sougata Roy, dean of IIM Calcutta. "These B-schools can't take shortcuts like other private institutes. The unscrupulous ones will immediately find a way out by simply affiliating themselves to some university." There was no regulatory framework prescribed by AICTE for PGDM programmes earlier. "The institutes are free to run independently without seeking an AICTE approval, but if they seek the council's approval, they will have to follow the new framework," says M.M. Pant, chairman of AIMA-CME Board of Studies. He was also present at the meeting held between AICTE and AIMA officials on 18 January. "They are irked because certain financial benefits that they were getting earlier will be reduced now," he says.   Organisations such as Education Promotion Society for India, AIMS and All India Management Association (AIMA) have approached AICTE to find a middle way between the institutes' rights and the new guidelines. "Nothing constructive has come out of the meetings so far, AICTE being unmoved on its stance," says an AIMA member present at the meeting. AICTE has also proposed that model curriculum/syllabus for PGDM programme be issued by the council itself. Many industry experts think a move on those lines will cause a slowdown in the revising of management curriculum. Though the B-schools are desperate to receive a new and more autonomous set of regulations from the council, the possibilities remain bleak.   (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 31-01-2011)