GMAT planning test centres in smaller cities

With time, management education market in India has become widely popular and has immensely matured. The owner of the graduate management aptitude test (GMAT), a widely used gateway to MBA programmes, is planning test centres in smaller cities such as Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a US-based association of business schools, in February has opened an India office as its third overseas establishment.One of the most important trend of change that has been observed as the choice of destination to study MBA.

Earlier, it was most obvious to choose US as destination to study MBA. But, now Asia has come up with lot of options. Fifteen percent of GMAT scores Indian candidates send are to Indian B-schools. Destinations like Singa pore have become visible.GMAT scores by Indians sent to US universities dropped sharply to 54.84% in 2010 from 76% in 2006. Last year, Indians sent 6.77% of their GMAT scores to Singapore institutes, almost double than five years ago.

Indian aspirants are increasingly applying to top Indian B-schools through GMAT, which has risen to 14.34% last year compared with 9.3% in 2006.Though students are still applying in US universities, admission to local institutes are also being preferred by many.

GMAT score is now accepted by 45 Indian B-schools for over 105 programmes.GMAT will also allow international students to enter Indian classrooms.Now, beyond the six metros, the council has opened test centres in Patna, Ranchi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Allahabad, Pune and Kochi.The council is also considering Visakhapatnam , Coimbatore, Nagpur, and the north, Lucknow.