CAT 2025 Convenor Announced on MBAUnivese.com: Prof Ram Kumar of IIM Kozhikode to Lead CAT 2025; Know Role of CAT Convenor and Convening IIM
The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK), one of India’s top B-schools, has confirmed to MBAUniverse.com that Prof. Ram Kumar P.N., Professor of Quantitative Methods and Operations Management at IIMK, is the CAT 2025 Convenor. Read this detailed article to understand the role of the CAT Convenor and the convening IIM, and how Prof. Ram Kumar’s leadership as CAT 2025 Convenor may impact the exam. Also check CAT Convenors since CAT 2015, and some bold decisions a few of them took.
Let’s begin by understanding more about the role of CAT Convenor, and then about Prof Ram Kumar.
What is the Role of CAT Convenor?
CAT exam is conducted by one of these six oldest IIMs by rotation: IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, and IIM Indore. IIM Calcutta conducted the exam in 2024. IIM Kozhikode is conducting CAT 2025 exam.
CAT Convenor is typically a senior faculty member from the convening IIM who is officially appointed to oversee the planning, execution, and administration of the CAT exam. CAT Convenor plays an important role in the conduct of CAT exam as the face of the exam. Specifically, as CAT 2025 Convenor, Prof Ram Kumar shall have following roles and responsibilities:
1. Overall Responsibility for Conducting CAT
The Convenor is the academic and administrative head of the CAT exam process for that year. As CAT 2025 Convenor, Prof Ram Kumar shall be accountable for the integrity, transparency, and conduct of the exam.
2. Finalizing the CAT Paper Design
As CAT 2025 Convenor, Prof Ram Kumar shall, along with an expert committee, finalize the structure of the CAT exam. This includes number of sections, types of questions, time duration, marking scheme, and any changes in pattern or format. While there are only minor changes in CAT exam from year to year, yet in some years there is a big change.
3. Coordination with Testing Partners
CAT Convenor works closely with the technical service provider TCS iON to manage online test logistics, center allocation, and smooth exam delivery in hundreds of cities.
4. Ensuring Fairness and Security
The Convenor leads efforts to ensure that the exam is conducted in a secure and standardized manner across all centers, and malpractice is prevented or swiftly dealt with.
5. Public Communication
The CAT Convenor becomes the official face of CAT for that year, issuing press releases, updates on the official website, and answering important queries.
6. Score Normalization & Results Release
Post-exam, the Convenor supervises the process of score calculation, normalization across sessions, and release of the results.
7. Liaison with All IIMs
The Convenor coordinates with the Admission Committees of all IIMs to ensure that their admission processes are aligned to CAT results.
Why CAT Convenor Matters?
For lakhs of CAT aspirants, the CAT Convenor plays a critical role in shaping their test experience and ensuring a level playing field. The decisions made by the Convenor influence test difficulty, structure, scheduling, communication and other factors. These have a big impact on aspirants’ preparation and mindset.
Who is Prof. P.N. Ram Kumar?
Prof. Ram Kumar is a respected scholar in Operations Research and Logistics area and a Professor at IIM Kozhikode. His association with IIM Kozhikode began in 2010 as a Visiting Assistant Professor. He later joined IIM Kozhikode as Assistant Professor in 2012. He is an alumnus of IIT Madras (Ph.D.), PSG Tech Coimbatore (M.E. in Industrial Engineering), and JNTU Hyderabad (B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering). His research spans across areas like transportation networks, “military logistics”, AI in operations, and supply chain optimization. He has published extensively in top-tier international journals.
Prof. Ram Kumar has held key academic and administrative roles at IIMK including Chairperson of the Doctoral Programme (PhD) and Chairperson of International Relations. His domain expertise, and leadership experience, make him well qualified to lead as CAT 2025 Convenor.
What It Means for CAT Aspirants?
Prof. Ram Kumar’s appointment at CAT 2025 convenor signals a data-driven approach to CAT 2025. Although a team of experts from all IIMs finalize CAT paper, Prof Ram Kumar’s background in operations, logistics, and decision sciences indicates a higher emphasis on testing analytical and application-based problem-solving skills.
IIM Kozhikode: A Champion of Diversity & Liberal Education
Although the CAT Convenor holds a critical individual responsibility, the influence of institutional leadership and collaborative thinking is just as vital in guiding the direction and execution of the CAT exam.
Led by Director Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, IIM Kozhikode has been a big advocate of diversity in management education. This is clearly visible from the IIM Kozhikode MBA batch profile of 2025-27. As reported by MBAUniverse.com, IIMK has achieved an overall gender diversity of 51% women across its three full-time MBA programmes. What’s more, more than 95% of students admitted to PGP in Liberal Studies and Management are non-engineers. IIM Kozhikode has also admitted seven International MBA students. Given the importance IIM Kozhikode attaches to academic diversity, it is fair to assume that CAT 2025 will be a balanced paper and not overtly focused on any one area.
Past CAT Convenors
As we prepare for CAT 2025, the contributions of past CAT convenors should be recalled. Here is the list of CAT convenors over the last decade.
| Exam | CAT Convenor | CAT Conducting IIM |
| CAT 2024 | Prof. Ramya T. Venkateswaran | IIM Calcutta |
| CAT 2023 | Prof Sanjeet Singh Phogat | IIM Lucknow |
| CAT 2022 | Dr Ashis Mishra | IIM Bangalore |
| CAT 2021 | Dr M P Ram Mohan | IIM Ahmedabad |
| CAT 2020 | Dr Harshal Lowalekar | IIM Indore |
| CAT 2019 | Dr Shubhasis Dey | IIM Kozhikode |
| CAT 2018 | Dr Sumanta Basu | IIM Calcutta |
| CAT 2017 | Dr Neeraj Dwivedi | IIM Lucknow |
| CAT 2016 | Dr Rajendra K Bandi | IIM Bangalore |
| CAT 2015 | Dr Tathagat Bandyopadhyay | IIM Ahmedabad |
Source: MBAUniverse.com
Some of the key initiatives taken by CAT convenors in the past are:
- CAT 2014 Convenor, Dr Rohit Kapoor, faculty at IIM Indore, increased the CAT exam time duration to 3 hours, increased the number of questions to 100 and reduced the testing window to two days
- In 2015, CAT Convenor 2015 Prof Tathagat Bandyopadhyay, faculty at IIM Ahmedabad reduced the CAT testing window to single day and two slots of 3 hours each. The number of CAT exam sections were increased to three from earlier two. TITA questions with No penalty of negative marking were introduced for the first time. This pattern is still followed.
- In 2020, due to Covid pandemic, CAT 2020 Convenor Prof Harshal Lowalekar, Faculty at IIM Indore, reduced the number of questions to 76, reduced the CAT time duration to 2 hours and increased the testing slots to 3 from earlier 2.
- In 2021, Prof M P Rammohan, CAT 2021 Convenor and faculty at IIM Ahmedabad found that the number of 76 questions for a 2 hour CAT exam was high and reduced the number of questions to 66 to allow more time for the test takers to attempt the test. No change in test duration of 2 hours was made.
Countdown to CAT 2025 has begun…
CAT 2025 exam is expected to be held on November 30, 2025. CAT Registration 2025 shall start from August 1, 2025. CAT Notification 2025 is expected to be released on Sunday, July 27, 2025. For the lakhs of aspirants preparing for CAT 2025, Prof. Ram Kumar will be a name to watch out for. MBAUniverse.com shall continue to report all important updates on CT 2025 exam.
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