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Business News/ Education / News/  Six firms in fray to conduct entrance test for IIMs
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Six firms in fray to conduct entrance test for IIMs

Prometric,Pearson VUE, MeritTrac, Aptech and Eduquity among firms vying to conduct the exam from next year

CAT-2013 started on 16 October and will end on 6 November, and around 195,000 students—the lowest in six years—will sit for the online test during this period. Photo: Hindustan TimesPremium
CAT-2013 started on 16 October and will end on 6 November, and around 195,000 students—the lowest in six years—will sit for the online test during this period. Photo: Hindustan Times

New Delhi: Six foreign and Indian education technology companies are vying to conduct the Common Admission Test (CAT) for the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) after the contract of US-based Prometric Inc., which has conducted the test since 2009, ends this year.

Authorities at the IIMs say they have started the process of identifying and selecting the company that will conduct CAT for the next five years, but declined to elaborate.

According to three people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified, there are at least six firms, including Prometric, Pearson VUE, Manipal Education-promoted MeritTrac Services Pvt. Ltd, Aptech Ltd and Eduquity Career Technologies Ltd in the fray.

“We have started the process and it is continuing as per the rules. All the IIMs are involved in the process," said CAT convenor Rohit Kapoor.

Kapoor, who is also a professor at IIM-Indore, said he would not like to speak more about this and added that his immediate focus is on the smooth conduct of CAT-2013.

CAT-2013 started on 16 October and will end on 6 November. In this period, around 195,000 students, the lowest in six years, will sit for the online test. The scores will decide admissions into 13 IIMs and several other business schools.

MeritTrac executive vice-president Nagendra Sundararajan confirmed that his company is in the fray. MeritTrac was one of the sub-contractors of Prometric in the computerized test’s initial years.

An executive at Eduquity Career Technologies said he hopes the IIMs will provide a “level-playing field".

R. Dhirendra, chief executive officer of the Bangalore-based testing company, said: “The EOI (expression of interest) deadline is over. They (IIMs) have not communicated anything to us formally but we hear the process has started."

Dhirendra’s firm is a pioneer in Indian online education testing space and was instrumental in starting the online test for BITS, Pilani , in 2004.

Pravir Arora, executive vice-president and head of enterprise and global business at Aptech, said the testing firms have to focus on transparency. For the past two years, Aptech has conducted the Common Management Admission Test for the All India Council for Technical Education.

Soumitra Roy, managing director of Prometric India, declined comment. Fiona Collins, vice-president (market development) at Pearson VUE, said the company is interested in the CAT contract. “We have global experience," she said. Pearson VUE is the test delivery arm of Pearson Plc.

Collins said the company’s India experience of conducting NMAT (Narsee Monjee Management Aptitude Test), a computer-based entrance exam for the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai, will come in handy. “The biggest challenge for testing companies is to deliver a transparent and tamper-proof, smooth exam. We are well placed."

Since CAT went online it has seen two key controversies—the major technical glitch in 2009-10 and the score tampering scandal in 2012-13.

“With top Indian institutions looking to globalize their campuses, there is a very good possibility that in the next five years, CAT may go overseas. Here, selecting a good testing partner is the key as IIMs can ill afford any glitches," said one of the three officials mentioned in the first instance.

According to Mayank Jaiswal, India head of Edutech India Pvt. Ltd, an online education provider, CAT and JEE (joint entrance examination, the entrance test for the Indian Institutes of Technology) are “high-stake" and happen “only once a year" unlike the Graduate Record Examination and the Graduate Management Aptitude Test that happen several times a year. “So the process has to be foolproof."

“Companies who are participating understand it, and there is a cost attached to this. But there is always a pressure of bringing down the price through tendering," Jaiswal added.

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Published: 31 Oct 2013, 11:25 PM IST
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