More Indian B-School have started accepting GMAT

by Manisha Verma

The craze to get admission in management schools is increasing day-by-day. Every year lot of students prepare for various entrance exams to get admission in one or another B-School of the country. Different B-Schools accepts different exam scores, GMAT is one among them. In last three years, number of Indian B-Schools accepting GMAT score has increased from 20 to 45.

In an effort to take the B-schools at an international level and make them comparable to world class business schools, more and more Indian management institutions have begun accepting the Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT) as an admission criterion.

In year 2007, around 20 B-schools in India were accepting GMAT scores. In year 2010, 45 B-schools are accepting GMAT scores. According to Ashok Sarathy, Vice President GMAT programme, "Part of the value proposition of GMAT is that it is an internationally recognised test. Also as B-schools in India desire to be comparable to the best in the world, GMAT provides them with that opportunity."

Saxena says, "GMAT will help us improve our admission process and learn from the global best practices in the world. It will also help us accept international students in future." NMIMS is already using GMAT scores to admit students for its executive management programme delivered in Banglore. The B-Schools in future, plans to use the same for its two-year management programme.

At the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, accepting GMAT scores will help the school be counted among the world's best, according to its dean M L Srikant.

According to this top B-Schools in India plan to accept GMAT along with other entrance examination scores like the- Common Admission Test (CAT), NMIMS Admission Test (NMAT) and Xavier Admission Test (XAT)-among others.

GMAC is also trying to involve more Indian B-Schools to be the part of it. It invited various Indian B-Schools such as Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Management-Ahemdabad and Bangalore, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Great Lakes Institute of Management and Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS).

"One of the primary reasons for Indian students opting for Indian B-schools is that more number of institutes are starting one-year management programmes. The numbers could go up further, with institutes increasing the sizes of their batches in the future," said Samir Barua, director, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). IIM-A offers a one-year post gradate programme in management for executives and the programme admit around 100 students in its batch. Barua said, "The institute may look at increasing the batch size in the future, as the programme establishes itself."

GMAC has opened its office in India in February this year and is looking forward at growing its GMAT volumes in India and also get more Indian B-Schools to being accepting GMAT as admission criteria.

The council says it would look at creating India specific research and data so that it can provide some value and importance to Indian B-Schools.

"In India we are looking at doing things that we have done successfully across the globe. We do volumes of research on management education and related trends. We also do professional development programmes. So being a part of GMAC allows B-schools an opportunity to network, educate themselves and bring up to speed with other B-schools," adds Sarathy.

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