MHCET 2013 to be scrapped
Directorate
of Technical Education (DTE), Maharashtra has decided
to scrapMHCET from
2013. Sources from DTE reveal that the DTE officials hold the view that a
single management exam is much more beneficial for the students.
Only a week ago it was declared that
MHCET 2012 will be postponed for avoiding its clash with the CMAT exam window.
The fact that DTE gave more importance to the CMAT exam was probably the
indication of CMAT replacing MHCET in 2013.
It was quite expected that CMAT will
be replacing both MAT and MHCET, but AIMA has already announced the exam dates
for MAT 2012 and 2013. However, MHCET will be replaced by CMAT in 2013, which
will in turn increase the number of CMAT applicants as MHCET pool of candidates
will now switch to CMAT exam. This will also prove to be beneficial for
regional schools in Maharashtra as they
will have large number of students from a diverse pool applying for admissions.
DTE on December 31, 2011 announced that institutes such as
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) and Sydenham Institute
of Management research and entrepreneurship (SIMSREE) will be accepting CMAT
2012 scores. Earlier, these institutes accepted MHCET scores primarily for
admissions. Moreover, these institutes kept high cut offs in CAT exam as a major admission criteria due
to which only few students could get admission but now the number of admissions
is surely expected to increase. KJ Somaiya and Welingkar will be
accepting CMAT 2012 scores too.
Students taking MHCET exam will find CMAT to be more beneficial
as the MHCET paper structure was quite different from other exams whereas, the
structure of CMAT closely follows the pattern of NMAT and SNAP, which the
candidates are more familiar with.
Although DTE officials are in favor
of a single management exam, there are certain issues that need to be taken
care of. Most of the applicants from the interior regions of Maharashtra
taking MHCET, a paper pencil based test may not be so tech savvy and can find
it difficult to appear for CMAT online test. It will be a big challenge for
AICTE to cater to the needs of such applicants.
CMAT replacing most of the MBA
entrance exams in India is expected
to open the doors of opportunities for students and management institutes but
at the same time it is also a challenge for AICTE to conduct a single national
level management entrance test in a diverse country like India .
How successful AICTE is in
conducting CMAT is yet to be seen with both students and institutes following
“wait and watch policy”.