Will CAT 2016 offer the same good opportunity as last year to attract more Non-engineers and women candidates to improve diversity in IIM class rooms as it offered last year? In all probability yes! IIM Ahmedabad who convened CAT last year overhauled the exam structure and content with the sole objective to have more non-engineers, women and candidates from diversified background to improve academic and gender diversity in IIM class rooms.
IIM Bangalore, the CAT 2016 convener may further modify the structure and pattern of CAT 2016 to make it more appealing to aspirants hailing from non-engineering back ground and for female candidates.
Leader took the initiative
IIM Ahmedabad, the top B-school of the country took the lead and revamped the CAT structure and exam pattern last year. The sole objective to overhaul the CAT exam last year, as shared with MBAUniverse.com, by Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, CAT convener and admission chair IIM Ahmedabad was to ‘‘help IIMs bring in greater diversity in the classrooms that will go a long way in enriching the learning experience.’
Result: IIMA PGP 2016-18 has more Non-engineers & women students
The 53rd batch of its flagship PGP programme at IIM Ahmedabad was inaugurated on June 22, 2016. The new PGP 2016-18 batch at IIM Ahmedabad consists of greater number of non-engineers and women candidates as compared to PGP 2015-17 batch. It is all due to revamped CAT structure and modified admission policy which awarded great weightage to non-engineers and females.
The comparative chart will clarify further-
|
Percentage to total PGP batch |
PGP 2016-18 |
PGP 2015-17 |
Increase in 2016 over last year |
|
Non-Engineers |
20% |
9% |
11% |
|
Women |
21% |
14% |
7% |
The increase in percentage of academic diversity namely non-engineers is the highest during the last 5 years in IIM Ahmedabad class room. IIM Ahmedabad concluded its admission process on June 30, 2016.
Diversity important for learning: Prof Ashish Nanda, Director IIMA
On achieving the objective of improving the class room diversity, Professor Ashish Nanda, Director, IIM Ahmedabad said, “IIMA’s vision is that we educate leaders of enterprises. We are continually assessing our admissions process critically to ensure we are selecting candidates best positioned to be leaders of enterprises. We are delighted that in selecting potential leaders who can contribute to their own and their colleagues’ growth and learning, we have also achieved a diverse mix in the entering class. In a discussion-based learning environment, such as ours, diversity of participants’ backgrounds and inclusivity of the institution’s culture contribute significantly to a positive learning environment.”
Revolutionary CAT convener was firm to attract diversity
Professor Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, faculty and admission chair at IIM Ahmedabad who convened last year CAT and was instrumental in modifying the CAT exam structure as well as the content is committed to bring further diversity in IIM class room. In his view “Diversity in the student population helps in enriching the learning process by bringing in diverse perspectives in the class-room discussion.”
CAT 2016 to take mission further
IIM Bangalore the CAT 2016 convener is expected to bring more modifications to help improving further the academic diversity in IIM class rooms. Big changes in CAT 2016 exam are expected to achieve the objective. It is an effort to limit the dominance of more engineering graduates making it to IIMs due to which the CAT 2016 convening IIM Bangalore may propose more changes in CAT 2016 exam pattern to increase academic diversity.
CAT 2016 to offer level playing field for all
Going by the trend and commitment of IIMs as reflected in their respective admission policy, it is expected that CAT 2016 will also have the vision to bring about holistic improvement at operational and content level in the exam. CAT 2016 will create a level-playing field for all candidates, no matter what educational background they come from.
Dominance of engineers fading in IIMs
Since top rated IIMs and other B schools still have more number of students from Engineering background, CAT 2016 may bring about the innovative changes in the computer based CAT 2016 to provide equal opportunity of scoring high to all the test takers.
All sections with equal weightage
In fact when the candidates from Humanities, commerce, Arts, science, medical & paramedical streams get the opportunity to score high in CAT 2016 with equal weightage on 2 sections other than Quant, they will sure be able to score high percentile and thereby will have better chances of getting shortlisted for final admission round by IIMs.
More weightage to academic & gender diversity
Admission policy of almost all IIMs has been changed. Now, with significant weightage awarded for academic and gender diversity, and less weightage to CAT 2016 score in final admission round, the vision of CAT 2016 convener to offer more opportunities to Non-engineers and women in class rooms of IIMs may result in higher percentage increase in PGP 2017-19 batch at IIMs.
CAT 2016 exam notification is proposed to be released in a week or so by the end of July and the registration process for the exam will begin in the first week of August, 2016. The exam is proposed in the 2nd or 3rd week end in the month of November 2016 across the country. CAT is the mandatory entrance exam for admission to all the 20 IIMs and other top rated B-schools like FMS, IMI, IMT, JBIMS, MDI, SPJIMR among others.
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2016
