AICTE formulates changes in admission norms

The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) recently have made minor changes in its norms that had been formulated for admission to postgraduate diploma in management and postgraduate certificate in management.

The apex body in India for technical education regulation has clarified that the B-schools can now chose the Common Admission Test (CAT), Management Aptitude Test (MAT) or the examination conducted by the states for providing admission to students. B-schools will also be allowed to pick students for admission using a combination of these tests.

The AICTE had recently released controversial norms for management institutes, which had been criticized by b-schools. The AICTE has now offered a minor concession in norms but has not addressed the major demands of b-schools, for which they had even approached the Supreme
Court.

The latest decision of the AICTE regarding the admission process for b-schools does not address several concerns that had been raised by b-schools after the December 2010
notification. The Institutes have argued that giving the state governments the power to manage the admission procedure for b-schools, including the decision of where a student will finally get admission was an attempt to taking away their autonomy.