In a letter sent to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the Department of Technical Education, Rajasthan Government has stated that it will consider only Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) scores from next year. The Rajasthan Management Aptitude Test (RMAT), the management test conducted by RTU will be scrapped with immediate effect.
The announcement to scrap RMAT comes just a couple of days after the scrapping of Maharashtra CET, which too will be discontinued from 2013.
SS Mantha, Chairman, AICTE, said that the regulatory body was in talks with many state universities and that most of them had shown a positive reaction in accepting CMAT — Maharashtra, Kerala and Rajasthan have formally agreed to accept CMAT scores. Since the announcement for CMAT was made very late in the year, the council is encouraging state universities to accept CMAT scores, even if it is in addition to their state-level exams, Mantha said.
Unlike CAT, where IIMs and other institutes have to pay a fee to use the exam for admissions, AICTE is not charging any fees from institutes who agree to accept CMAT scores. Mantha also said that AICTE will not gain monetarily through institute registrations for CMAT and is hopeful that it encourages more institutes to accept CMAT scores.
Mantha specified that the council was planning to extend the deadline for student registration for CMAT by 10-12 days. The original deadline for registrations was January 9, but as some states have elections scheduled for the day, we have extended it. We are waiting for responses from some of the state universities and want to give students enough time to register for the exam, Mantha said.
AICTE also plans to hold the test twice a year, once in February and then in June, from 2013. One of the questions being raised by many is that if the students are not able to do their best in CMAT, they will have no option left with all other exams standing cancelled. However, we want to give students a fair chance of getting in the management college of their choice, Mantha added.